Ministry: PM’s trip to Kazakhstan was reciprocal, not for leisure

(Bernama) KUALA LUMPUR: The Prime Minister’s trip to Kazakhstan was to fulfil a long-standing invitation from President Nursultan Nazarbayev to visit the country, the Foreign Ministry said.

The ministry’s Department of Information and Public Diplomacy in a statement to Bernama yesterday refuted a news portal report titled “PM’s use of public funds for wedding trip morally wrong”.

The ministry said the claims by some quarters that the visit was for the wedding of Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s daughter was unfounded.

The statement clarified that Najib’s visit to Kazakhstan on June 5 and 6 was the Prime Minister’s first official visit to the country and reciprocated the visit by Nazarbayev to Malaysia in June 2006.
Warm welcome: Najib shaking hands with members of the public at the Bunga Raya Complex, KL International Airport in Sepang. Najib returned to Malaysia Thursday after a four-day trip to Kazakhstan. With him is Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.

The ministry said during the visit, Najib had paid a courtesy call on Nazarbayev and also held bilateral consultations with Kazakhstan Prime Minister Karim Massimov.

“The visit did not just elevate bilateral relations between the two countries but also generated many opportunities for the Malaysian business community.”

The ministry added that Kazakhstan was also Malaysia’s biggest trading partner among Central Asian countries.

The statement also said the Prime Minister’s visit coincided with the 7th World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) from June 7 to 9 at Astana and that Najib had attended the forum in his capacity as a head of government, representing Malaysia and as patron of WIEF.

The decision by Kazakhstan to host the 7th WIEF on these dates was reached more than a year ago, when Malaysia hosted the sixth series of the WIEF in May, 2010, the ministry statement added.

“On the whole, the visit brought about a substantial development in Malaysia-Kazakhstan bilateral relations which is mutually rewarding,” said the ministry. – Bernama