ASTANA – Bilateral political consultations between the foreign ministries of Kazakhstan and Iran took place in Tehran on Feb. 1, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry press service reports, with the parties discussing mutual support for international issues, possibilities for increasing trade and investment and other issues.
Photo from MFA Kazakhstan
Deputy Foreign Minister Askar Mussinov headed the Kazakh delegation while Deputy Foreign Minister Ibrahim Rahimpour led the Iranian side.
During the meeting, the two sides exchanged views on ways to further strengthen bilateral cooperation. In this regard, the importance of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to Kazakhstan last September was emphasised, as were the implementation of the agreements reached during his visit and the commissioning of the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway line in December 2014, which increases regional trade possibilities.
The Kazakh diplomat briefed his counterpart on the new Nurly Zhol (Path to the Future) economic policy announced in President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s annual state-of-the nation address last November, and extended an invitation to potential Iranian investors to consider participating in economic projects within it. The Kazakh side thanked their Iranian counterparts for their support of a number of Kazakhstan’s recent initiatives, including Kazakhstan’s candidacy for a nonpermanent seat on the UN Security Council for 2017-2018, the initiative of President Nazarbayev to create the Islamic Organisation for Food Security under the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the international exhibition EXPO 2017 to be held in Astana.
The Iranian side highlighted Astana’s constructive engagement in the negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme and commended Kazakhstan’s hospitality in hosting two rounds of multilateral negotiations in Almaty in 2013.
During his visit to Tehran, Mussinov was received by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran Mohammad Javad Zarif. The minister accepted the invitation of his Kazakh counterpart, Erlan Idrissov, to pay an official visit to Kazakhstan in April, noting that Kazakhstan will be the first country which he intends to visit during his tour of Central Asia.
Another meeting was held with Deputy Foreign Minister of Iran Hassan Kashkavi, during which legal and consular issues were discussed.
