Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev arrived for an official visit to Turkey, where he was met by his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul. The Turkish Iha website reported that the visit inaugurates a new stage of bilateral strategic and economic cooperation.

The President of Kazakhstan, a state which is turning out into the energy base of Central Asia, arrived in Ankara accompanied by 300 businessmen and with projects worth billions of U.S. dollars. The Turkish leaders intend to persuade President Nazarbayev to pipe Kazakh gas into the Nabucco pipeline instead of exporting it to Russia. The Kazakh leader is to hold meetings with the Turkish President and Premier and deliver a speech in Parliament. The sides will sign a number of agreements.

The Turkish-Kazakh trade turnover currently reaches U.S. $2.5bn, but the two states plans to bring it up to U.S. $5bn.

The Kazakh President will also meet with the Turkish ex-president Suleyman Demirel and with the Opposition leaders.

NEWS.am reminds readers that, before visiting Turkey, the Kazakh leader welcomed the Armenian-Turkish Protocols as an important step to the normalization of bilateral relations