Kazakhstan, Astana, 26 April / Trend D.Mukhtarov /
The meeting of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Erlan Idrisov with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who arrived in Kazakhstan on an official visit, was held on Friday, Kazakh Foreign Ministry told Trend.
During the meeting, the sides discussed a wide range of bilateral issues, including the status and prospects of political dialogue, trade and economic, investment, military-technical, cultural and humanitarian cooperation, inter-parliamentary relations and issues of cooperation in the security sphere.
"Turkey is an important and reliable partner of Kazakhstan on the Eurasian continent. Strategic nature of our partnership was consolidated during the official visit of the head of Kazakh state to Turkey in October 2009. It is due not only to the historical and cultural proximity between our fraternal peoples, but also the increased role of Astana and Ankara in regional and global politics, and the authority of the two countries in the Muslim and Turkic world ", the head of the Foreign Ministry of Kazakhstan said.
Speaking of the Kazakh-Turkish strategic partnership, Idrisov stressed the dynamics of relations between the two brotherly countries. He recalled last year's three major events at the highest levels: visits to Kazakhstan of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (May 22-24), chairman of the Grand National Assembly Cemil Cicek (September 26-28) and President Nazarbayev's visit to Ankara (October11-12).
Foreign Minister drew attention to the importance of the economic component of the cooperation and elaborated on the Action Plan for the implementation of joint economic program "New Synergies" for 2012-2015. Over the past three years, bilateral trade has more than doubled - from 1.9 to four billion dollars. Kazakhstan's investments to Turkey amounted to $978.1 million at the end of last year, whereas Turkey's investment in Kazakhstan - $859.8 million.
In turn, Davutoglu expressed his great satisfaction with the pace of development of cooperation between Kazakhstan and Turkey, noting Turkey's sincere desire to further strengthen the partnership in bilateral and multilateral formats.
In order to enhance the interaction between Kazakhstan and Turkey, the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council was established, which first met in October 2012 during the visit of the President of Kazakhstan to Ankara. In addition, the Joint Strategic Planning Group is expected to turn into a mechanism of effective political engagement. The first meeting of the Joint Group was held on Friday during an extended meeting between Davutoglu and Idrisov.