Kazakhstan President Calls for Closer Economic Ties with U.S.

At a meeting with U.S. diplomat, President Says Iraq Should Demonstrate Good Will Toward UN Inspectors

WASHINGTON, DC, March 6 - President Nursultan Nazarbayev received U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan Larry Napper in Astana Feb. 28 to discuss bilateral political and economic cooperation in the context of the agreements reached by the two nations' presidents at a December 2001 meeting in Washington, DC, kazpravda.kz reported.

Nazarbayev discussed ways to promote bilateralcooperation in the energy development. He underscored the need to put the Houston Initiative into practice as quickly as possible. In 2001, Nursultan Nazarbayev and George W. Bush agreed to initiate this program aimed at promoting the development of small and medium-sized business partnerships between Kazakhstan and the USA in order to help strengthen the republic's growing middle class. In October 2002, the program was officially launched with the U.S. and Kazakhstan providing $11 million and $5 million respectively as the seed money.

Speaking of Iraq, Nazarbayev underlined the importance of multiparty approaches to solving the problem. He said that as a nation that voluntarily renounced the nuclear weapons, Kazakhstan stands for nonproliferation of all kinds of weapons of mass destruction, and believes Iraq has to demonstrate the good will and sincerity toward the UN inspectors.

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