On August 18, 2007, Chinese President Hu Jintao held talks with his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev in Astana. Both sides agreed to make joint efforts, earnestly advance cooperation in all areas and upgrade the general level of China-Kazakhstan strategic partnership, to promote common development and prosperity of both countries.

Hu lauded the new progress in bilateral cooperation in a number fields including trade, transport, security, humanities and energy resources, saying this year has seen remarkable improvement in bilateral ties. He said both countries support each other in major issues of common concern and have coordinated closely under such multilateral frameworks such as the United Nations, Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA), which has in turn contributed to greatly promoting steady development of both countries and the entire region.

The Chinese president called on both sides to reinforce cooperation in the following five aspects. First, strengthen the momentum of exchange of high-level visits and deepen consultations and dialogue between relevant agencies of both countries. He urged both sides to comprehensively implement the Good-Neighborly Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation, the bilateral cooperation strategy for the 21st century and other documents. Second, expand mutually beneficial cooperation in such fields as trade and economy, transportation and energy. Both sides should do a good job in key energy cooperation projects, expand non-resources cooperation, increase the proportion of highly value-added and hi-tech goods, improve trade mix and trade investment environment and speed up cooperation in border areas. Third, deepen security cooperation to meet new threats and challenges against the region. Fourth, intensify cooperation under such multilateral frameworks as the United Nations, the SCO and the CICA, to effectively safeguard the common interests of both countries. Fifth, expand bilateral cultural cooperation and media exchange to foster public opinions favorable for the development of Sino-Kazakh ties. Hu suggested both sides focus efforts on such events as the "Chinese Bridge" and the "Kazakh Cultural Festival".

Agreeing with Hu's comments and suggestions on bilateral ties, Nazarbayev said the Kazakh side highly regards the good-neighborly cooperation with China and deems it vital to maintain and develop relations with China. Nazarbayev stressed that his country stands ready to join hands with China in promoting cooperation in all fields, adding that Sino-Kazakh economic cooperation has a solid legal basis and is expanding and deepening continuously. Nazarbayev expressed hope to continue expanding bilateral energy cooperation and at the same time enhancing investment cooperation on metallurgy, chemical industry, biotechnology, telecommunications and transport. He said Kazakhstan attaches great importance to expanding humanistic exchanges with China and is ready to make positive efforts to this end.

Kazakhstan also said both countries share broad common interests and have similar stance on world and regional affairs, and stressed that his country attaches importance to carrying out security cooperation with China. He vowed that Kazakhstan will not permit any organization or individual to take any activity on its soil that can cause harm to China.

After their talks, the two presidents inked a China-Kazakhstan joint communiqué and witnessed the signing of nine agreements on bilateral economic, trade and energy cooperation. Later, they jointly met with the journalists.

Prior to the talks, Nazarbayev held a grand welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Palace for Hu Jintao's state visit.

Vice Premier Wu Yi attended the meeting.