Manmohan Singh to visit Kazakhstan

New Delhi, Apr 11(ANI): Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will pay an official visit to Kazakhstan on April 15-16 at the invitation of Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Monday.

"This would be the Prime Minister's first visit to Kazakhstan and his second to Central Asia after his visit to Uzbekistan in 2006. President Nazarbayev is a long standing friend of India. He last visited India as the Chief Guest at our Republic Day celebrations in 2009. He had previously visited India three times in 1992, 1996 and 2002," MEA Secretary (East) Sanjay Singh said.

"Apart from bilateral visits, the two leaders have met on several occasions on the margins of multilateral events. In recent times, they met on the sidelines of the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) Summit in Yekaterinburg in June 2009, and on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit exactly one year ago on April 11, 2010, in Washington," he added.

President Nazarbayev was recently re-elected, and was inaugurated in his new term on April 8.

"Prime Minister has sent a letter congratulating President Nazarbayev on his latest electoral victory," Sanjay Singh said.

On April 16, Dr. Singh will attend an official welcome ceremony at the Presidential Palace, where he will have a restricted meeting with President Nazarbayev followed by delegation-level interaction.

The two leaders will then interact with the media before attending an official luncheon.

Dr. Singh will also meet Kazakhstan Prime Minister Karim K. Massimov.

"Some agreements are expected to be signed. The Prime Minister will be accompanied by the National Security Advisor and other senior officials," Sanjay Singh said. (ANI)