ASTANA (TCA) — US President Donald Trump hosted Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev on January 16 at the White House to discuss enhanced strategic partnership between the United States and Kazakhstan.
The two leaders resolved to strengthen cooperation on political and security issues, trade and investment, and people-to-people relationships through regular high-level meetings within the framework of an Enhanced Strategic Partnership Dialogue, the Kazakh presidential press service reported. They committed to address shared challenges in Central Asia through regional formats, such as the C5+1 (five Central Asia countries plus the US) dialogue, and welcomed future Afghan participation in C5+1 projects.
In remarks in Joint Press Statements on January 16, President Trump called Kazakhstan “strong, sovereign, independent” and added that the country was “a friend and strategic partner” to the United States. He also thanked President Nazarbayev for helping in the transit of U.S. military equipment and personnel to Afghanistan.
Trump thanked Nazarbayev for his full support for Washington’s South Asia strategy, including the efforts in Afghanistan. “I greatly appreciate the President’s personal assurances that Kazakhstan will continue to provide critical logistical support and access for our troops fighting ISIS and the Taliban,” Trump said.
In his remarks, Nazarbayev spoke about a “new level of relations” and “the new era of the relations between Kazakhstan and United States”.
“Central Asia became into the focus of big global players, because we are bordering Russia on one side; on the other side, we have China; to the south, we have an Islamic world. But we want also the United States to be present there in the format of Central Asia countries plus one — that means the United States. And we would appreciate this new format of collaboration,” Nazarbayev said.
Speaking about economic relations, Nazarbayev said that in Kazakhstan, “we have major American companies operating for many years. We have Chevron, ExxonMobil. We have General Electric, Halliburton. And all these companies invested about 50 billion U.S. dollars into Kazakhstani economy so far.”
The two leaders pledged to deepen bilateral defense and security relationships, noting their intent to conclude several agreements that enhance cooperation, interoperability, access, and logistical routes in support of regional security. Both leaders noted the signing of the fourth Five Year Plan for Military Cooperation between the Ministry of Defense of Kazakhstan and the U.S. Department of Defense. The Presidents committed to explore Kazakhstan’s interest in joining the Cybercrime Convention, which would provide a framework for global cooperation against threats to e-commerce and crimes committed over the internet.
President Trump also encouraged Kazakhstan’s goal to increase English language proficiency, and pledged to offer assistance to improve English education programs in Kazakhstani schools.
