Special Report: Premier Wen visits Russia, Kazakhstan, attends SCO meeting

Backgrounder: Basic facts about China-Kazakhstan relations

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev (R) shakes hands with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan, Oct. 31, 2008. (Xinhua/Rao Aimin) Photo Gallery>>>

    ASTANA, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- China and Kazakhstan agreed on Friday in a joint communique to set maintaining sustained growth of bilateral trade volume and promoting implementation of key cooperation programs as priorities of bilateral economic and trade cooperation.

    To this end, the two countries decided to improve investment environment, work out new cooperation mode, optimize trade structure and strengthen economic and technological cooperation to facilitate companies of both countries, said the communique, which was issued during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to the Central Asian country.

    They also agreed to take feasible measures to protect the legitimate rights of their citizens and corporations on each other's territories.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (L) meets with his Kazakh counterpart Karim Masimov in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan, Oct. 31, 2008. (Xinhua/Rao Aimin)  Photo Gallery>>>

    Both sides have decided to continue enhancing cooperation in the fields of petrochemicals, metallurgy and construction materials, machine building, textile, food processing, agriculture, telecommunications, transportation and logistics, said the joint communique.

    They stressed that they will continue to further energy cooperation and ensure the completion of a natural gas pipeline linking the two countries by the end of 2009.

    In face of the current global financial turmoil, both sides agreed on the great importance of closer financial cooperation and joint efforts in financial supervision, exchange of experience and sharing of information.

    The communique said both China and Kazakhstan have given high priority to agriculture cooperation and agreed to speed up the implementation of a package of cooperation programs in this area.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (L) and his Kazakh counterpart Karim Masimov hold a joint press conference in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan, Oct. 31, 2008. (Xinhua/Huang Jingwen) Photo Gallery>>>

China, Kazakhstan issues communique on strengthening partnership 

    ASTANA, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- China and Kazakhstan issued a joint communique here Friday, pledging further efforts to promote bilateral strategic partnership and deepen cooperation in various fields.

    The communique, which was signed during a three-day official visit by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, said the Sino-Kazakh strategic partnership has witnessed rapid and sound growth in recent years, highlighting the exchange of high-level visits between the two countries in 2008. Full story

Premier Wen makes four-point proposal for strengthening SCO co-op

    ASTANA, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao made a four-point proposal on Thursday for enhancing the pragmatic cooperation among members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

    The premier made the proposal in an address to the 7th SCO prime ministers' meeting in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. Full story

Chinese premier says to strengthen cooperation with Mongolia

    ASTANA, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said here Thursday that China will further enhance its cooperation with Mongolia amid dramatically changing international situation and the current global financial crisis.

    On the sidelines of the 7th prime ministers' meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Chinese premier met with Sanj Bayar, prime minister of Mongolia, which is an SCO observer. Full story

    MOSCOW, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- China believes that a mulitipolar world is in the interest of the world people and is conducive to peace and development across the globe, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said here Wednesday.

    In an interview with Russia's Itar-Tass and Interfax news agencies, Wen said that people across the world need a peaceful, stable, secure and harmonious environment. Full story