President Nazarbayev starts official visit to China

As was reported earlier, Nursultan Nazarbayev is expected to participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit on June 6-7 in Beijing.

President Nazarbayev will meet with his Chinese counterpart - leader of the People's Republic of China Hu Jintao in expanded format on Wednesday (June 6). After the negotiations the leaders are believed to ink a number of bilateral documents, including the Joint Declaration of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the People's Republic of China and the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Government of the People's Republic of China on checkpoints on the state border.

In addition, Nursultan Nazarbayev is to meet with Vice President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping and CNPC CEO Jiang Jemin on Wednesday's morning.

The next point on the Kazakh leader's agenda is a briefing with Kazakhstani mass media.

In the afternoon a meeting between President Nazarbayev and Chairman of the State Council of the People's Republic of China Wen Jiabao is planned.

According to the presidential press service, Foreign Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov, Deputy Prime Minister Kairat Kelimbetov, CEO of JSC "National Welfare Fund "Samruk-Kazyna" Umirzak Shukeyev, Deputy Head of the President's Administration Bakhyt Sultanov, Transport and Communications Minister Askar Zhumagaliyev and President of JSC "NC "Kazakhstan Temir Zholy" Askar Mamin accompany Nursultan Nazarbayev during the visit to China.

According to the Kazakh MFA's official spokesperson Altay Abibyllayev, the upcoming official visit of the Kazakh President to the People's Republic of China will be another milestone in further development of the Kazakh-Chinese multilateral strategic partnership. Upon results of the meeting, the Kazakh and Chinese leaders are to sign a joint declaration.

The same day the unofficial part of the SCO Summit will start in Beijing. The SCO top-level meeting is to open on Thursday (June 7).

President Nazarbayev is also expected to take part in the session of the SCO member countries' leaders in narrow format.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a regional international organization for cooperation established in 2001 by the leaders of Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.