Chinese premier meets Kazakhstan PM

DALIAN -- Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Tuesday met with Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Olzhas Bektenov in Northeast China's Dalian city, who is here to attend the 17th Annual Meeting of the New Champions.

Li said that under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, China and Kazakhstan have continuously deepened and solidified their permanent comprehensive strategic partnership, achieving fruitful results. He also added that it can be regarded as a model of mutual assistance and mutual benefit between neighboring countries.

China is willing to work with Kazakhstan to deepen good-neighborliness and friendship, consolidate political mutual trust, strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation, and bring more benefits to the people of the two countries, Li said.

Li noted that China is ready to work with Kazakhstan to expand and improve bilateral trade, consolidate and deepen cooperation in energy and mineral resources, comprehensively enhance connectivity, and broaden cooperation in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, smart cities, big data, and the digital economy, thereby injecting new impetus into the modernization of both countries.

China is also willing to deepen exchanges and cooperation with Kazakhstan in culture, tourism, education, youth and other fields, and enhance mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples, Li said, adding that the two sides should enhance cooperation within the frameworks of China-Central Asia cooperation and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and jointly promote sustainable regional development.

Bektenov said that the two heads of state have provided strategic guidance and injected strong impetus into bilateral cooperation. He added that Kazakhstan is willing to work with China to implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, further enhance high-level exchanges, and jointly advance the Belt and Road Initiative. He also expressed the hope that the two countries will deepen cooperation in trade, investment, connectivity, energy, agriculture, industry, and other fields, expand people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and achieve more substantive results in developing their permanent comprehensive strategic partnership.

The Kazakh side stands ready to create a more favorable environment for Chinese enterprises to invest in Kazakhstan, enhance communication and collaboration with China within multilateral platforms, and make joint efforts in maintaining regional peace, stability and development, Bektenov added.