Krishna to visit Kazakhstan Tuesday

NEW DELHI - External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna will go on a three-day visit to oil-rich Kazakhstan Tuesday to scale up cooperation in diverse sectors including energy and infrastructure with India.

Krishna will hold talks with his Kazakh counterpart Kanat Saudabayev on a range of economic, energy and security ties.

The two ministers hope to set a timeline for some big-ticket projects. These include a production and exploration pact on the Satpayev oil bloc, joint pharma ventures and infrastructure deals, official sources said.

Krishna is also likely to call on Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the sources told IANS.

A business delegation led by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) will accompany Krishna when he travels to the Central Asian nation.

Krishna and his Kazakh counterpart will also discuss details of an inter-governmental agreement on peaceful civil nuclear cooperation. The the two sides are likely to sign an agreement soon.

India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp Videsh and Kazakhstan’s KazMunaiGas have signed an MoU for the Satpayev oil block.

Krishna will build on proposals and ideas that came up for discussions between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Nazarbayev on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington about a month ago.

Enhancing cooperation in agriculture, civil construction, mining, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals and petrochemicals will figure on the agenda.

Krishna will discuss the third summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) to be held next month.

The CICA is a 20-nation forum for enhancing cooperation to promote peace, security and stability in Asia.

Nazarbayev was the chief guest at India’s Republic Day parade Jan 26 last year.

Energy security has emerged as an important pillar of collaboration between the two countries. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Nuclear Power Corp of India and Kazakhstan’s state-owned KazAtomProm for the supply of uranium was signed during Nazarbayev’s visit.

An admirer of India’s development model, the Kazakh president is keen that Indian companies have a greater presence in his country.

He has invited Indian companies to participate in 170 major projects in a variety of sectors to speed up industrialisation of his country.