Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev congratulated India on its 67th Independence Day on Aug. 15. The Kazakhstan President sent messages of congratulations to India on the country’s Independence Day. In his message to President Pranab Mukherjee, he wrote: “I note with deep satisfaction the bilateral relations developing between our countries on the basis of mutually beneficial cooperation and understanding. I am confident that the partnership between Kazakhstan and India will come to a qualitatively new level and will be further strengthened for the benefits of our peoples. Your Excellency, I take this opportunity to wish you good health and successes, as well as happiness and prosperity to the friendly people of India. Kazakhstan and India share a rich spirituality, openness and tolerance, hospitality and cordiality and a steady pursuit of sustained development for the benefit of two nations.”
On Aug. 18, Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev awarded the winners of the international combat sambo tournament in Sochi. The fourth Platform S-70 tournament was organized by Sambo-70 and League S-70 centres in Sochi. The Russian national team beat the world team 4:1. In personal event, athletes from Kazakhstan and Russia won by two fights and a Ukrainian sambo wrestler was victorious as well. “I thank Russian President Vladimir Putin for the invitation to Sochi to this event. I would also like to thank all participants of this truly men’s competition,” President Nazarbayev said awarding the athletes. The Kazakhstan President also said that during the visit he got acquainted with the facilities built in Sochi for the Olympic Games 2014. “I am impressed to see that such great work has been conducted over a short period of time. The image of Sochi changed. It is great luck for the Sochi residents, for the residents of the Krasnodar region and Russia as a whole to have this new city,” Nazarbayev said. He recalled that Kazakhstan submitted an application for hosting the Winter Olympic Games 2022 in Almaty. The president said that the country would exert every effort to win the bid and invited President Putin to the Olympics in case of Kazakhstan’s election as the host country.
Shakhtyor Karagandy hosted Celtic in Champions League play-off first leg on Aug. 20 at Astana Arena (with the result still unknown at the time of this newspaper’s going to press) and will play an away game in Scotland on Aug. 28.
The 70th Venice International Film Festival will take place from Aug. 28 to Sept. 7. “Bauyr” or “Little Brother,” the movie by Kazakhstan director Serik Aprymov, which was produced by Kazakhfilm, will be shown at the Venice Film Festival. This provides an opportunity to highlight Kazakhstan’s flourishing film industry and to draw attention to the investments the government is making in cinema.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to visit Kazakhstan Sept. 6-8 to discuss a wide range of issues with Kazakhstan officials. The first project that needs to be commissioned is the first section of Beineu-Bozoi-Shymkent gas pipe line. Xi Jinping is expected to visit the project’s commissioning ceremony.
Well-known Kazakh traveler Dmitry Petrukhin is continuing his motorcycle journey through Latin America to promote Kazakhstan’s hosting of EXPO 2017. In Brazil, Petrukhin toured nature areas and major cities and met locals in Rio De Janeiro. Brazilians expressed interest during a meeting with the Rio Chamber of Commerce and in television interviews with Petrukhin in Kazakhstan and in preparation works for hosting EXPO 2017 in Astana. Director of the Energy Department of the Ministry of Industry of Brazil Antonio Gonzalez confirmed his country’s participation in EXPO 2017 and thanked Kazakhstan’s biking expedition led by Petrukhin for their visit and the invitation to come to Astana in 2017.
