UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to Arrive in Kazakhstan on Official Visit

On Thursday the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, is arriving in Kazakhstan on a two-day official visit.

In Astana Kofi Annan will discuss the development of the relations between Kazakhstan and the United Nations as well as a number of other international security issues, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry informed RIA Novosti.

On Tuesday in Astana the UN Secretary General is to meet with Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Following the meeting Kofi Annan will be awarded the first degree Dostyk decoration.

The following day Kofi Annan will hold meetings with the chairmen of both Houses of the Kazakh Parliament, as well as with the Council of the Peoples of Kazakhstan Assembly. The UN Secretary General will also meet with the heads of the UN missions commissioned in Kazakhstan.

An individual program for Kofi Annan's wife, Nani Annan, has been worked out, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry reports. On Thursday she will visit the exhibitions at the presidential culture center, participate in the ceremony of awarding Nursultan Nazarbayev's wife with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) prize on the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the "Bobek" charity foundation. Besides, Nani Annan is expected to visit a children's concert and to have a round-table meeting with a group of Kazakh women.