Kazakhstan sees Israel an important partner in Middle East, said President Nursultan Nazarbaev during meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres today.

Nursultan Nazarabaev said this is a first visit of the head of Israel in the history of the bilateral relations and underlines "a personal strive to establish further cooperation between the two countries."

The President of Kazakhstan said the trade between the two countries hit US$2.5 billion in 2008. "I believe that the Kazakhstani-Israeli Intergovernmental Commission for Commercial Cooperation should work in a way to find mutually acceptable terms of cooperative work," Nursultan Nazarbaev said. The President of Kazakhstan also stressed that Kazakhstan and Israel enjoy a comprehensive cooperation in economic, political and humanitarian realms.

President Peres Shimon said in turn that he highly values Nursultan Nazarbaev as an outstanding leader and friend. "We have discussed a range of areas of cooperation in science and industry and have reached an agreement in agriculture, health care, state-of-the-art innovative technologies and other directions," Shimon Peres said.

The meeting of the two leaders was then held behind the closed doors.