[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 39 (Monday, October 2, 2006)]
[Pages 1695-1696]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Following Discussions With President Nursultan Nazarbayev of 
Kazakhstan

September 29, 2006

    President Bush. Mr. President, thank you for coming. It's been my 
honor to welcome the President of Kazakhstan back to the Oval Office. He 
informed me that the first time he was here was when my dad was the 
President. And I welcome you back.
    We've just had a very important and interesting discussion. We 
discussed our desire to defeat extremism and our mutual desire to 
support the forces of moderation throughout the world. I thanked the 
President for his contribution to helping a new democracy in Iraq 
survive and thrive and grow.
    I thank very much the President for his concerns about Afghanistan's 
democracy and his willingness to help in Afghanistan. We talked about 
our mutual--our bilateral relations and our mutual desire to--for 
Kazakhstan to join the WTO. We talked about our commitment to 
institutions that will enable liberty to flourish.
    I have watched very carefully the development of this important 
country from one that was in the Soviet sphere to one that now is a free 
nation. And I appreciate your leadership, Mr. President. And I welcome 
you here to the White House, and I'm looking forward to buying you 
lunch. [Laughter]
    President Nazarbayev. Thank you very much, Mr. President, for 
hospitality and for warm feelings that I feel in this country and for 
the invitation. This is the third time that I'm in the Oval room since 
the independence of our country and as I am the President of Kazakhstan. 
And Kazakh nation never had experienced statehood before, and I had this 
blessing of becoming the first President of Kazakhstan, and the United 
States was the country that supported our independence and recognized it 
from the very first days. Thus in economics, in energy partnership, in 
policy, in war on terrorism, we've truly become close partners.
    And Kazakhstan today is very proud that we have the highest rate of 
economic growth in the world, and a lot of countries learn from the 
experience of Kazakhstan today. But that wouldn't be possible if Taliban 
would not be defeated in Afghanistan. And that war was led by United 
States. And nobody in central Asia will feel safe and peace if we'd be 
surrounded by countries populated with terrorist people, and if we'd be 
surrounded by countries where some people crave to put their hands on 
the nuclear weapons, which Kazakhstan renounced in the past voluntarily, 
and thus contributed significantly to global security.
    The United States is the major investor, foreign investor into 
Kazakhstan. One-third of all foreign investments in Kazakhstan are from 
United States. And after this meeting, we'll publish the joint 
declaration, and you will--in that declaration, you will read about the 
details and what we have discussed and

[[Page 1696]]

what we have achieved during these negotiations.
    And I'm here today to tell once again that Kazakhstan is a friend of 
the United States, because the United States is the country that 
guaranteed stability and protection of Kazakhstan when Kazakhstan 
renounced nuclear weapons, and we will continue to work in all fields of 
our cooperation that exist today.
    President Bush. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 11:51 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. President Nazarbayev spoke in Russian, and his remarks were 
translated by an interpreter.