On February 17, 2011, Assistant Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping, at invitation, attended the seminar on President Nazarbayev's state of the union address held by the Embassy of Kazakhstan in China and delivered a speech. Kazakh Ambassador to China Ikram Adyrbekov chaired the seminar. Representatives of the International Liaison Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce, China-Central Asia Friendship Association and China Institute of Contemporary International Relations attended the seminar.
In his speech, Cheng first of all extended congratulations on the seminar and spoke highly of the significance of President Nazarbayev's state of the union address to Kazakhstan's economic and social development. He pointed out that the address, profoundly reviewing the achievements of Kazakhstan's national construction since independence and comprehensively planning the development direction of politics, economy, people's livelihood and diplomacy of Kazakhstan in the next few years, plays an important role of guiding Kazakhstan's national construction and social and economic development in the future.
Cheng also spoke highly of the development of China-Kazakhstan relations. He stressed that the bilateral relations develop stably and the two sides maintain frequent high-level exchanges of visit and enjoy increasing political mutual trust. As the bilateral pragmatic cooperation in the economic, energy, cultural and educational fields continues expanding and partnership under the multilateral frameworks of the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia grows closer, the two countries have made active contributions to maintaining regional stability and promoting common development. China is willing to make joint efforts with Kazakhstan to continue to deepen the bilateral political mutual trust, step up the pragmatic cooperation and push forward the bilateral strategic partnership.