On September 14, 2001, Premier Zhu Rongji, who is visiting Kazakhstan, met with Kazakh President Nursultan Abishevich Nazarbayev. The two sides held warm and friendly talks.

Nazarbayev extended a warm welcome to Zhu for his formal visit to Kazakhstan and asked Zhu to convey his cordial greetings to President Jiang Zemin. He said the visit to Kazakhstan by the high-level delegation led by Zhu and made up of State Councilor Wu Yi and a dozen ministers is of great importance to promoting good neighborly cooperative relations between the two countries. He has established a profound friendship and good working relationship with President Jiang. Both sides attach great importance to developing Kazakhstan-China relations.

He said that Kazakh-Chinese cooperation has displayed good momentum and expanded in all fields including economy and trade, transportation and energy. Kazakhstan expressed thanks for China's steadfast support for his country's maintenance of state sovereignty and independence and appreciates China's internal and foreign policies. Kazakhstan will always be China’s good neighbor and friend. Kazakhstan resolutely follows the “one China” policy and opposes national separatism of all forms. He said that the establishment of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has opened up broad prospects for the cooperation in the region in political, economic, trade and cultural fields. Kazakhstan particularly attaches importance to the setting up of an anti-terrorism center within the framework of the organization.

Zhu conveyed President Jiang’s cordial greetings to Nazarbayev. He paid high tribute to the achievements made by Kazakhstan in developing the economy and promoting people’s living standard since its independence 10 years ago. He said that the primary objective of his visit is to implement in concrete ways the concensus reached by the Chinese and Kazakh presidents on developing friendly cooperation between the two countries. The two prime ministers had an in-depth exchange of views on bilateral cooperation in all fields and reached a number of new agreements. In particular, there are broad prospects in developing oil and gas between the two sides, which will bring great benefits to the people of the two countries.

Zhu pointed out that friendly relations between China and Kazakhstan are the results jointly nurtured and promoted by Presidents Jiang and Nazarbayev. The achievements made in the development of bilateral relations in the past decade since the establishment of diplomatic relations testify to the fact that good-neighborliness and mutually beneficial cooperation are the correct choice of the two peoples. The Chinese side is ready to continue constructive cooperation with the Kazakh side in the new century so as to promote bilateral relations to a new high.

Zhu said that terrorism, separatism and religious extremism have been running rampant in Central Asia over the past few years, threatening the security and stability of all nations in the region. China would like to cooperate with the Kazakh side in further strengthening the fight against the three forces in a bid to create a peaceful and stable environment for the prosperity and development of the countries in the region. He also praised the meticulous preparations made by Kazakhstan, the host country for the first meeting of the six prime ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which was held to implement the various resolutions and concensus agreed upon at the Shanghai summit.