HM King’s current visit to Kazakhstan hailed

Manama: April 14 – (BNA): Al-Ayam newspaper emphasized the importance of the current official state visit of HM King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa to the intercontinental and ninth largest country in the world which is the friendly Republic of Kazakhstan during which His Majesty will hold official talks with the Kazakh President and the Prime Minister. Al-Ayam newspaper in its editorial said that Bahrain under the leadership of HM the King is keen on boosting its cooperation relations with all countries and persistently seeks to interact with its surroundings. The newspaper said that the talks between HM the King and President Nursultan Nazarbayev who launched and patronized the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) aimed to boost security, stability, peace, tolerance, conflict resolution, cooperation on counter-terrorism and to achieve political stability in Asia. The Kazakh President also adopted the first conference of religious leaders in 2003 aimed at rapprochement between civilizations and amicable resolution of conflicts. Al-Ayam said that HM the King leads a large official economic delegation to Astana during his historic official visit aimed to boost economic and political relations in line with HM the King’s multi-dimensional strategy for Bahrain’s international relations, evidenced by the successful historic royal visits to several Asian countries. The Arabic-speaking newspaper said that Kazakhstan’s economy is an excellent example of a booming economy. Kazakhstan produces oil, gas, coal, copper, steel, uranium, gold, diamonds and cereals. Kazakstan produces 14 billion cubic meters of gas, 85 million metric tons of coal, generates 65 billion kilowatts of electricity, has huge natural resources, features a unique geographic location between Asia and Europe, boasts a grand ancient national heritage and offers great investment opportunities. Bahrain and Kazakhstan have many things in common. The two countries have established official diplomatic relations since 1992. The bilateral relations were boosted by the first official visit of President Nursultan Nazarbayev to Bahrain in 1997 during which His Excellency met the late His Highness Shaikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa the Amir of the State of Bahrain. A Bahraini business delegation visited Kazakhstan in 1998. Also, a Kazakh banking delegation visited Bahrain in 2002 which boosted banking relations. (IY) I.Y