Kazakh President To Hold Informal Meeting With Mongolian Leader

This year president of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev intends to visit the Bayan-Ulgi aimak (Region) of Mongolia and to hold there an informal meeting with Mongolian head of state Natsagiyn Bagabandi, head of Mongolia's presidential administration Badamdorjiyn Batkhishig said on Friday. According to him, the proposal of the president of Kazakhstan to hold such a meeting was voiced by him at the meeting with the delegation of Mongolia which participated in the celebration of the 10th anniversary of Kazakhstan's independence in December 2001. Receiving on Wednesday deputies of Mongolia's parliament elected from the Bayan-Ulgi aimak, Natsagiyn Bagabandi told them that he had accepted the proposal of the Kazakh president and assured that the question of the time of the meeting would soon be decided through the diplomatic channels. About 90,000 Kazakhs are living in the Bayan-Ulgi aimak in the west of Mongolia. Besides that, more than 60,000 Mongolian Kazakhs have gone to Kazakhstan to work there.