Turkish FM Çavuşoğlu holds high level talks in Kazakhstan

Turkey's foreign minister met the incumbent and former presidents of Kazakhstan Friday to discuss regional developments and bilateral relations in Kazakh city of Shymkent.

According to a statement issued by the Kazakh presidency, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu held bilateral talks with Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev who underlined the mutual understanding, cooperation and friendly relations between the two countries during the meeting.

"We have strong ties with deep historical roots, our first president Mr. Nazarbayev has made an important contribution to strengthen our relations," Tokayev said.

Also touching on the trade relation, he said Turkey and Kazakhstan enjoy some $2 billion reciprocal trade volume.

Çavuşoğlu , for his part, emphasized that Turkey would always stand by the Ahiska Turks wherever they are.

As part of his visit, Çavuşoğlu also met Nursultan Nazarbayev, the first and former president of Kazakhstan.

During the bilateral meeting, Nazarbayev emphasized that it is important to protect and strengthen cooperation between the two countries, his office said in a statement.

"Turkey has supported us since the early days of independence, our countries and peoples are very close to each other," Nazarbayev said.

"We applied a visa-free regime between our countries, the relations between Turkey and Kazakhstan is strengthening from year to year," he noted.

He also said the relations among the member states of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (Turkic Council) should develop.

"The Turkic Council was established with the aim of developing and strengthening the ties between the Turkic peoples, it is necessary to continue this effort," Nazarbayev said, adding his extensive support for it.