Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has arrived on an official visit to Tehran, the press service of the Kazakh President said.
"During the visit he will meet with the President Hassan Rouhani and the country's spiritual leader Ali Khamenei, as well as representatives of Iranian companies," RIA Novosti cited the message as saying.
The visit of the head of state began immediately after the meeting of the Kazakh-Iranian Business Council, organized by Kazakhstan's Baiterek Holding. The event was attended by more than 200 Kazakh and Iranian companies. Following the meeting, businessmen of the two countries concluded 50 cooperation agreements worth a total amount of $1 billion, 9 documents of which for a total amount of $304 million were signed by companies and partners of Baiterek Holding. Among the agreements are export contracts for the supply of agricultural and engineering products to Iran and joint projects in the chemical and petrochemical industries, Kazinform reports.
A major investment agreement was made between a subsidiary of Baiterek Holding, JSC 'Investment Fund of Kazakhstan' and Iran's 'Kaveh Glass Industry Group' on the creation of a soda ash plant in the Kyzylorda region ($200 million). A number of import and export agreements were signed in the agricultural field: several Kazakh companies agreed on exports of meat and grain products.
Kazakhstan's company 'National Champion' Alageum electric and Iran's Niroo Nransfo Co. have agreed on supply of transformers and transformer oil to Iran. 'Istkomtrans' LLP and Railway transportation S.A. have signed an agreement in the field of rail transportation ($25 million). Kazakhstan's LLP 'Topan' and Iran's 'Electro Kavir' have agreed to establish a joint venture in Iran to supply technological and commercial accounting systems of hydrocarbons ($70 million). In addition, an agreement on the construction of a solar power plant with a capacity of 50 MW in the Almaty region.
Also, Astana has started to address the issue of visa support in order to further develop the trade and economic potential of the two countries.
A member of the Zinoviev Club, the director of the EurAsEC Institute, Vladimir Lepekhin, said in conversation with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza explained that now Astana is specifying its foreign policy, gradually abandoning the multi-vector policy in favor of increasing its role in the formation of the Eurasian free trade zone.
"That is, in fact, Kazakhstan is becoming a Eurasian state leader in communications between such powers as China, Russia and Iran, as well as Turkey, if Ankara will have a desire to actively participate in the Eurasian integration in the future," he noted.
"From the geopolitical point of view, Kazakhstan is the player without which it is impossible to build the Eurasian economic area. Therefore, Kazakhstan is doomed to cooperate with Iran in the long term, as Iran is doomed to cooperate with Kazakhstan," the expert said.
According to the director of the EurAsEC Institute, long-term plans both in the energy and transport fields, in particular the establishment of railway communication between Iran and Kazakhstan, implementation of which Kazakhstan has already started, will allow to increase the trade turnover between the two countries. "Regarding the geopolitical role of Kazakhstan, the trade turnover and economic cooperation will continue to grow," Vladimir Lepekhin summed up.
A senior scientist of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the RAS, Stanislav Pritchin, noted that "the cooperation between these countries covers a wide range of issues". "Before the sanctions there were supplies of agricultural products from Kazakhstan, first of all, wheat. In addition, as we know, it includes a bank of low-enriched uranium in Ust-Kamengorsk, in the framework of the agreement on the Iranian nuclear program markedly the storage of Iran's spent nuclear fuel is noticeable. The railway from Iran to Kazakhstan via Turkmenistan has been recently launched," he said.
"That is, to date, there is the necessary infrastructure and experience of cooperation between the two countries, which allows to intensively develop relations between the two countries. Including also projects related to the Economic Belt of the Silk Road, because Iran is a close partner of China and a number of infrastructure projects, which may be a link between Kazakhstan and Iran, are passing through Kazakhstan," the expert added.
