President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa received Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan Dulat Kuanyshev in connection with completion of his diplomatic mission, the Kazakh foreign ministry said September 22.

During the meeting the sides stressed the expansion of bilateral cooperation especially after Sri Lanka president’s state visit to Astana in 2012 at the invitation of Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev, the statement says.

It is important for Sri Lanka to obtain an observer status in the The Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in 2013. This testifies to the need for further development of a dialogue in Asia and the formation of continental security, the statement says.

During the meeting Kuanyshev informed about Kazakhstan's aspiration to be a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 2017-2018, outlining the Kazakh side’s arguments on this issue. This was appreciated by Sri Lanka’s president.

Moreover, the ambassador informed President Rajapaksa about the preparation for the EXPO-2017 in Astana.

CICA was established on the initiative of President Nazarbayev to promote a dialogue among the conference participants and to work out the practical confidence-building measures in the field of politics, security and economy.

CICA includes Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Vietnam, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Cambodia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, United Arab Emirates, Palestine, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Republic of Korea. The U.S, Japan, Ukraine, Indonesia, Malaysia, Qatar, Bangladesh, the Philippines, and the United Nations, the Arab League and the OSCE have an observer status.

(Trend News Agency)