DUSHANBE, July 5, 2008, Asia-Plus — Along with leaders of a number of other countries President Emomali Rahmon is attending celebrations in Astana to mark the 10th anniversary of Astana as the capital city of Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan staged gala events on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Astana as Kazakhstan’s capital city today.
According to presidential press service, the gala meeting on this occasion in Astana is attended, apart from the Tajik leader, by the presidents of Armenia Serzh Sarkisyan, Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili, Kyrgyzstan Kurmanbek Bakiyev, Russia Dmitry Medvedev, and Turkey Abdullah Gul as well as by Jordanian King Abdullah II.
We will recall that ten years ago, President Nursultan Nazarbayev decided to move the Kazakh capital from Almaty to the city of Akmola, later renamed Astana.
During his stay in Astana, President Rahmon is also expected to hold a number of bilateral meetings with some of the above leaders.
On July 6, Emomali Rahmon can also congratulate his Kazakh counterpart, Nursultan Nazarbayev, the host of the meeting, on his birthday.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi who had arrived in Astana several earlier for preparation Tajik president’s working visit had already held talks with his Kazakh counterpart, Marat Tazhin, Prime Minister Karim Masimov, and Minister of Energy and Industries Vladimir Shkolnik. The talks mainly focused on bilateral economic cooperation between the countries, participation in joint projects, etc.
