ASTANA, Dec. 22 (MNA) – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has said Iran is not only a close neighbor of Kazakhstan but also a reliable partner in region after the talks with his Iranian counterpart Rouhani on Thursday.

“We have never broken our ties even when sanctions were imposed against Iran. We have held two rounds of negotiations regarding the nuclear program and we have made a passive contribution to the solution of this problem,” N.Nazarbayev said.

Ways of development and strengthening of bilateral relations were discussed at the meeting, he added.

“The scope of the Kazakh-Iranian dialogue is being expanded and gains a systemic character. Our main goal is to promote friendly ties between the two nations,” Nazarbayev highlighted.

He added that the negotiations focused on the ways of strengthening partnership in trade-economic sphere and several priority areas of interaction were defined.

“This is joint usage and development of enormous potential of the two countries in transit and logistics sphere. You know, that Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railroad has turned into an effective transport and communication system in the region enabling Kazakhstan and Iran as well as other countries to come in the Gulf States. We have started joint construction of logistics centers of grain and container terminals,” Nazarbayev noted and added that cooperation in railroad sector dynamically developed in recent years. “This work need to be continued,” he stressed. 

KAZINFORM/MNA