Sushma Swaraj meets Kazakhstan PM

External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj on Friday met Kazakhstan Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev and discussed ways of strengthening bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Raveesh Kumar posted a picture of their meeting on Twitter and wrote: "EAM @SushmaSwaraj called on Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, Bakytzhan Sagintayev. Good exchange of views on strengthening cooperation in trade and investment, ICT, joint film production, tourism and people-to-people contacts."

Earlier today, Swaraj said that the flagship initiatives of the Narendra Modi-led government such as 'Digital India', 'Make in India' and 'Start-Up India' can boost business relations between India and Kazakhstan.

Addressing a joint presser with her Kazakh counterpart, Kairat Abdrakhmanov, Swaraj said, "Under Narendra Modi ji, many projects like 'Digital India', 'Make in India' and 'Start-Up India' have been started. These can be highly useful for digital developments in Kazakhstan. It can boost business relations between the two nations."

Swaraj added that she held extensive and productive talks on various fields with her Kazakh counterpart and spoke on bilateral, global and regional issues of mutual interest.

Stressing on the strong Indo-Kazakh ties, Swaraj stated, "Our relations are very cordial for a long time. Relations between India and Kazakhstan are built on the foundation of centuries-old historical and cultural ties. Both India and Kazakhstan have developed multifaceted cooperation in all areas of bilateral and multilateral relations and are strategic partners since 2009."

She said that India was keen to partner with Kazakhstan to explore markets for new products, diversifying from the trade in traditional products to bolster trade ties between the two nations.

On Thursday, Swaraj interacted with the Indian community in Astana and said that from the first Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to Dr. Manmohan Singh, nobody addressed the Indian community in other countries like the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government.

Swaraj is currently on a three-nation visit to Central Asia region. After Kazakhstan, she will be visiting Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. This is her first trip to these countries as the foreign minister.