Kazakhstan will spend 50 million dollars during the next five years to educate 1,000 Afghans under an agreement between the two countries signed today in Kabul.

Kazakhstan will spend 50 million dollars during the next five years to educate 1,000 Afghans under an agreement between the two countries signed today in Kabul.

Kanat Saudabayev, Kazakhstan’s Secretary of State - Minister of Foreign Affairs visited Afghanistan today, and signed the agreement with Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Spanta.

When in Kabul, Saudabayev met President Hamid Karzai and UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan Kai Eide.

Minister Saudabayev presented a letter from President Nursultan Nazarbayev to President Karzai. In it, the Kazakh leader congratulated the Afghan President on his inauguration and confirmed Kazakhstan’s intention to strengthen bilateral relations, continue assisting in the stabilization and peaceful development of that nation.

During the meetings in Kabul, officials discussed prospects of cooperation in political, trade and economic, and cultural and humanitarian fields, and exchanged views on a range of topical issues of international and regional security. Over the past several years, Kazakhstan has transferred 2.4 million dollars towards reconstruction in Afghanistan, including for building a school, a hospital and a road, as well as sending 2,000 tons of wheat as humanitarian assistance. This year, under the Program of assistance to Afghanistan for 2009-2011, 1.5 million dollars are to be allocated.

In a meeting with President Karzai, Minister Saudabayev stressed the importance for Kazakhstan to participate in concrete projects to develop natural resources and infrastructure in Afghanistan, as well as the importance of increasing Kazakhstan’s grain exports to Afghanistan. This can be done both on a bilateral basis and through the UN and other international organizations, which, according to Minister Saudabayev, would be mutually beneficial and effective.

Under today’s agreement on cooperation in education, within the next five years, Kazakhstan will allocate 50 million dollars to educate 1,000 Afghan students at Kazakhstan’s vocational colleges and universities. Beginning next year, Kazakhstan will annually receive 200 students from Afghanistan for training in various specialties, ranging from doctors and teachers to experts in the field of law enforcement and border protection, from engineers and agronomists to journalists. Education will continue until 2018.

“This program was organized at the initiative of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who believes it is absolutely important for international efforts to stabilize Afghanistan to include such constructive measures and the engagement of that country into social, economic and humanitarian interaction. Our assistance to Afghanistan is also a contribution to ensuring the stability and development of our entire region,” Minister Saudabayev said.

“Our two nations are tied by deep historical and cultural roots which creates additional opportunities for further development of bilateral relations. We stand for Afghanistan’s active engagement in integration processes in the region, and the strengthening of mutually beneficial economic and humanitarian cooperation. As Chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) next year, we intend to do everything possible to use the potential of this organization in order to assist Afghanistan,” Minister Saudabayev noted.

Kanat Saudabayev and Kai Eide discussed concrete ways for Kazakhstan’s cooperation with the UN in the stabilization of Afghanistan, as well as prospects for interaction between the UN and OSCE during Kazakhstan’s chairmanship organization next year.

While in Kabul, Minister Saudabayev also launched the Farsi edition of the book by President Nazarbayev, The Kazakhstan Way.