The four-day visit of Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev to India as the Chief Guest on the Republic Day from 23rd to 26th January 2009 has been marked by five major important bilateral documents.

The most important among them is Joint Declaration on Strategic Partnership between Kazakhstan and India, which fixes agreement of the sides “to establish and develop strategic partnership principles of sovereignty and equality. The strategic partnership foresees comprehensive cooperation in all spheres, including political, economic, science and technology, military and technical cooperation, counter-terrorism mechanism, education and human resources development.”   

Besides the Joint Declaration, the following bilateral Agreements, MoUs and Protocol were signed in the presence of President Nursultan Nazarbayev and his counterpart Pratibha Patil after they held talks in New Delhi on January 24, 2009:   

• MoU between National Company KazAtomProm and Nuclear Power Corporation of India;  

• Heads of Agreement between National Company KazMunaiGas and ONGC Mittal Energy Limited (OMEL); 

• MoU between the National Space Agency of Kazakhstan and Indian Space Research Organisation on cooperation in the field of space activities;

• Extradition Treaty;

• Protocol on the Accession of Kazakhstan to the WTO.

Earlier, the President of Kazakhstan was given a guard of honour at a ceremonial reception on the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Another feature of the visit was the Kazakhstan-India Business Forum, which was  attended by representatives of 400 companies, out of which 130 were from Kazakhstan. The Business Forum saw signing of 12 contracts to the tune of $ 0.5 billion in the spheres of energy, infrastructure, IT and metallurgy. At the event, the Hindi versions of the President’s two books “Kazakhstan Way” and “Critical Decade” were released. Addressing the Business Forum, President Nazarbayev talked about the favourable investment climate in Kazakhstan and called on the Indian companies to actively participate in the priority sectors of Kazakh economy such as petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, IT and setting up thermal power plants in Kazakhstan.      

During the visit, Vice-President of India Hamid Ansari, Minister of External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Murli Deora, UPA President Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and Leader of Opposition L.K.Advani called on the President Kazakhstan.

On January 26, President Nursultan Nazarbayev was the Chief Guest on the Republic Day, an honour India extends to the leader of a friendly country and strategic partner. From his part, Kazakhstan President termed this gesture as “the recognition of high status of friendly relations between our two nations.” Having elevated bilateral cooperation to the level of strategic

partnership, both sides have created all the conditions for further intensification of the bilateral relations in political, economic and humanitarian spheres, he added while speaking at the State Banquet hosted by the President of India in his honour.

Speaking on the occasion, President Pratibha Patil characterized the State visit as historic, because “this is the first time, that a leader from a Central Asian country is gracing our Republic Day celebrations, as our honoured Chief Guest. This is indicative of the importance India attaches to the Central Asian region, which is our extended neighbourhood, and to the Republic of Kazakhstan, in particular.”

This was the Kazakh leader’s fourth visit and it speaks of his desire to forge close all-pervading relations with India. President Nursultan Nazarbayev chose India the first country to visit in 1992 after Kazakhstan got independence in 1991, which shows the importance with which he held this country.

Kazakhstan came out in firm support of India when this country was lobbying for permanent membership of the UN Security Council.

The visit provided India the opportunity to appreciate Kazakhstan’s strong support at the meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) which allowed New Delhi to resume full civil nuclear cooperation with the international community. Both sides noted that this opened immense possibilities of cooperation in the nuclear civil energy sector.

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev has strongly condemned the terrorist attacks in Mumbai and reiterated the need for intensifying global cooperation in combating international terrorism. Mr. Nazarbayev, also assured New Delhi that Kazakhstan stood firmly with India in dealing with the scourge of global terrorism.

The State Visit opened a new chapter in bilateral relations by declaring establishment of the Strategic Partnership between Kazakhstan and India. To follow up the understandings reached during the visit, contacts between Astana and New Delhi are set to be intensified in the years to come.