China and Kazakhstan held in Beijing on July 2 the first meeting of their cooperation committee, co-chaired by Chinese Vice-Premier Wu Yi and Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Akhmetzhan Yesimov.

Wu spoke highly of the Sino-Kazakh political and economic ties, noting trade volume, energy and communication cooperation have witnessed major progress and have rosy prospects.

The cooperation committee, founded last May in Beijing during Kazakh President Nursultan Azarbayev's visit, is responsible for implementing the agreements achieved by the two heads of state and promoting substantial cooperation in all fields, Wu said.

Yesimov agreed with Wu's remarks, saying China is a strategic partner of Kazakhstan and Kazakhstan attaches importance to the constructive partnership with China, vowing to further security cooperation, striking the "three forces", namely the terrorists, separatists and extremists.

Kazakhstan will, as usual, firmly support China on problems such as the Taiwan issue and will strengthen cooperation with China in the international arena, especially in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Yesimov said.

The cooperation committee will strive to complement the Kazakh-Chinese agreements and ensure the completion of projects in energy and communication sectors, he said.

The meeting discussed substantial cooperation in trade and economic cooperation, communication, ports of entry, science and technology, finance, energy, mining, culture and security and agreed to hold the second meeting next year in the Kazakh capital Astana.

Source: Xinhua