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India seeks energy cooperation with Kazakhstan
| New Delhi, April
08, 2008
India has sought the help of Kazakhstan, the second
biggest ex-Soviet state after Russia to meet its rising
energy needs as the two countries agreed to bolster
bilateral trade and economic cooperation.
"We held discussions on means of increasing bilateral
trade and expanding the areas of economic |
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cooperation, particularly in the hydrocarbon sector,"
Vice President Hamid Ansari
said after delegation level talks with his Kazakh
counterpart Kassym Jomart
Tokayev in Astana on Monday.
The parleys saw Kazakhstan extending its support for India's
membership in an extended U N Security Council with Tokayev
hailing New Delhi as a "reliable partner" of Astana in
international fora.
Kazakhstan has been consistently supporting India's
representation in an expanded UNSC.
Kazakhstan is among the top ten countries in terms of
hydrocarbon energy reserves as also mineral resources
including uranium.
The Kazakh leader said the two sides had reached an agreement
on setting up a friendship group.
"Greater economic engagement between India and the countries
of the Central Asian region is not only mutually beneficial
for the countries but also for the whole region and the
world," Ansari, who also met Kazakhstan Prime Minister Karim K
Massimov, said addressing the Kazakhstan Senate.
Ansari said with the economies of India and Kazakhstan
registering impressive growth, there were "wide ranging
opportunities" to expand areas of economic cooperation.
Welcoming Ansari, who arrived in Astana on Sunday night on a
four-day visit, Tokayev noted that India is one of the fastest
growing economies and Kazakhstan wanted greater cooperation
with it.
Ansari expressed India's readiness to cooperate in the higher
education sector by sending Indian professionals and training
Kazakh students and professionals in various disciplines in
India.
With the spectre of terrorism also haunting the Central Asian
region, Ansari told the Senate that India's “accommodative
pluralism has greatly contributed to stability and development
when multiculturalism has come under strain in many parts of
the world.”
Ansari will be holding talks with Kazak President Nursultan
Nazarbayev on Tuesday.
The Vice-President earlier concluded a three-day visit to
Turkmenistan during which the two countries signed an MoU on
facilitating cooperation in the oil and gas sector.
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