Kazakhstan president to visit Vietnam

The visit will be from June 11 to 13, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, without revealing what’s on the agenda.

Tokayev, 70, the second president of Kazakhstan, has been in power since March 2019.

Earlier he was Minister of Foreign Affairs and Prime Minister of the central Asian nation.

With an area of more than 2.7 million square kilometers and a population of 19 million, Kazakhstan is an important transshipment center for goods transported by road from Asia to Europe.

Vietnam established diplomatic relations with the former Soviet republic in 1992.

Since a free trade agreement between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union, which includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Kyrgyzstan, took effect in 2016, trade with Kazakhstan has kept growing to reach nearly US$600 million last year.

The two sides hope to increase it to US$1.5 billion by 2030.

Late last year a direct flight was launched between Nha Trang and Almaty, a major economic center and tourist destination in Kazakhstan.