On the afternoon of May 18, 2004, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) Wu Bangguo and Premier Wen Jiabao of the State Council met respectively with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev in Beijing.

Wu said China and Kazakhstan enjoy strong wish for friendship, adjacent geographical conditions as well as significant economic complementarities. The two sides also share broad common interest in international relations. Over the past 12 years, China and Kazakhstan have established friendly relations of cooperation with political mutual trust and economic mutual benefits. China gives high priority to developing relations with Kazakhstan. China will firmly push for the lasting, stable and sound development of bilateral relations regardless of any change in international situations.

Wu said parliamentary exchanges are an important part of state relations. China's NPC hopes to develop friendly exchanges with Kazakh Parliament. Since both countries are making active efforts in market economic system restructuring, China and Kazakhstan need to learn from each other and exchange experience in economic legislation. Kazakh Members of Parliament (MPs) are welcomed to visit China.

Nazarbayev said Kazakhstan-China friendship enjoys a long history and bilateral relations have witnessed significant development in recent years. Kazakhstan regards China as its most important partner for cooperation. The Kazakh Parliament would like to enhance friendly exchanges with China's NPC in a bid to make active contributions for the long-term development of bilateral relations.

Wen noted in the meeting that China-Kazakhstan relations are developing very smoothly and bilateral economic and trade cooperation is growing very rapidly. It is hoped that the two sides can actively explore new areas and modes of cooperation and promote goods, capital, technology and human resources flow between the two countries through the expansion of mutual investments. Wen thought highly of the agreement on energy cooperation signed between the two countries. He said it is in the immediate and long-term interests of both countries to deepen energy cooperation and the two sides need to ensure the smooth implementation of relevant projects.

Wen stressed that China attaches importance to developing relations with Kazakhstan and would like to promote the comprehensive and in-depth development of China-Kazakhstan relations of good neighborly friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation on the basis of mutual respect, mutual trust as well as mutual benefit.

Nazarbayev said the two sides signed a series of cooperative agreements on economy, trade, energy and transportation and established Kazakhstan-China cooperation committee and the entrepreneurs council during his visit to China. All these have laid a solid foundation for the enhancement of bilateral economic and trade relations. The Kazakh government is committed to developing relations with China in an all-round manner. It will actively participate in the economic construction of China, especially the Grand Western Development Project, and at the same time welcomes Chinese businesses to invest and set up plants in Kazakhstan.