Vice President Cheney and President Nursultan Nazarbayev Make Remarks in a Meeting in the Golden Hall in Astana, Kazakhstan

The Presidential Palace
Astana, Kazakhstan

7:21 P.M. (Local)

PRESIDENT NAZARBAYEV: (As translated.) Mr. Vice President, members of the delegation, I sincerely would like to welcome you to Kazakhstan and our new capital, the city of Astana.

Your visit symbolizes the great dynamics of the bilateral relations which have been established between the two nations from the very first day of our independence.

And these relations started from the very first day, and now we have reached strategic partnership relations -- that goes to our activity in nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction because Kazakhstan was the country which renounced nuclear arsenal, and thus contributed to the global security. And we did that together with the United States.

We actively collaborate in the energy sector, and our operations continued after the events of 9/11 in antiterrorism. We provide our air space for the planes of the coalition to fly over, and our bomb squad works in Iraq every day, saving thousands of lives.

And the United States is a major foreign investor in Kazakhstan. The American investments have reached the amount of 12 billion U.S. dollars, and today, we think that is a great achievement. And we hope that your visit will provide great impetus to the further development of this relation.

VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: Well, thank you very much, Mr. President. On behalf of the delegation, I want to thank you for receiving us today. I think all Americans are tremendously impressed with the progress that you've made in Kazakhstan in the last 15 years. Kazakhstan has become a good friend and strategic partner of the United States in -- we appreciate very much the work you've done in Afghanistan and Iraq and the work that we're doing -- and cooperating with us in the global war on terror.

Obviously, the enormous resources that you've got here in Kazakhstan are being developed to benefit those of us in the global economy. Americans are glad to be able to participate in this.

On a personal note, I'm delighted to have the opportunity to spend some time with you here in Astana. We met 10 years ago, when I was in private life, and it's a pleasure to renew our friendship.

END 7:26 P.M. (Local)