Kazakhstan, India can gain more from their strategic partnership: Envoy-designate

Kazakhstan's Ambassador-designate Bulat Sarsenbayev has said that both Kazakhstan and India have much to gain from their existing strategic partnership, given the advances made in bilateral ties between the two countries during the last decade.

In an exclusive interview given to ANI on the sidelines of an event to mark the 23rd anniversary of "The Day of the First President of Kazakhstan", Ambassador-designate Sarsenbayev, who is to formally present his credentials to President Pranab Mukherjee on December 9, said that as far as strategic and diplomatic ties were concerned, "geographically, we are not far away from each other, we have every day flights from Almaty to Delhi, and it takes only three hours. Historically, we have ties, during the Soviet time, before the Soviet time."

He further stated that it was a matter of great satisfaction that both countries have many projects of cooperation since India became one of the first countries to recognize the independence of Kazakhstan from the erstwhile Soviet Union in 1990-91.

"For example, I will tell you, monthly we issue about 700 visas to Kazakhstan from India, we have about 300 Indian students studying only in the medical universities in Kazakhstan. So, such kind of figures, and our flights, we have five flights a day, daily flights, it shows the growth of our relations," he said.

The envoy-designate, however, said that there is still huge scope for taking bilateral relations, especially with regard to trade, to the next level.

"Still, we are not satisfied with the level of trade. It is around 900 million dollars, but for countries like India and Kazakhstan, it should be more. I hope we will try to push and make trade increase," Ambassador-designate Sarsenbayev told ANI.

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