CGTN's reporter Michal Bardavid also interviewed the Chairman of the Committee for International Information at the Kazakhstan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He shares with us his thoughts on bilateral relations and challenges the two countries are facing.

MICHAL BARDAVID ASTANA "Can you please give us an overview of Kazakhstan and China relations first?"

TALGAT ZHUMAGULOV CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEE FOR INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION KAZAKHSTAN MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS "There is a good Kazakh proverb saying that a good neighbor is better than a distant cousin. Last year Kazakhstan and China marked the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between our two countries. And we must say that for this quarter century the two countries have grown relations from almost the scratch into a full-scale cooperation in many areas. The President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Chinese leaders have matched to establish very strong and efficient partnership. Our bilateral trade has reached 10.5 billion US Dollars in 2017. And also I need to single out the cooperation between China and Kazakhstan in the field of regional security. Kazakhstan and China are both are in forefront of regional cooperation which has taken form of the SCO and the CICA. So this is a brief overview of the bilateral cooperation today."

MICHAL BARDAVID ASTANA "Can you give us the examples of the challenges they are also facing?"

TALGAT ZHUMAGULOV CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEE FOR INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION KAZAKHSTAN MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS "Well, there are certainly numerous challenges that our world is facing today and our both nations must work very closely and consistently to tackle them. First, I would single out the regional stability and security, very important issue. Second set of challenges is related to the sustainable development: water, food, energy security, development of human capital. The third one I would emphasize the crisis of values of contemporary, of modern civilization. So, the diversity of cultures and religions. The coexistence of different people of different identities must be preserved and strengthened for the benefit of our world."