India hails Kazakhstan's role as 'number one' supplier of Uranium

Astana [Kazakhstan], June 8 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Thursday held discussions on a number of issues and reviewed the progress of the agreements signed between two nations including supply of Uranium to India. Indian Ambassador to Kazakhstan Harsh Kumar Jain said that during the meeting, Prime Minister Modi extended India's support to Kazakhstan's membership to United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and in return, expressed gratitude to support given to New Delhi's membership to Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). "Thereafter, they reviewed the progress on the decisions and agreements India and Kazakhstan had reached during the Prime Minister's previous visit to Kazakhstan in July 2015. One of the significant achievements of this progress is that Kazakhstan is now the number one supplier of Uranium to India. Following the visit, we have already received two shipments of Uranium from Kazakhstan to India in the last two years," he said. Jain said the two leaders also discussed India's hydrocarbon exploration in the Satbayev block. "When the Prime Minister first visited Kazakhstan in 2015, he launched the functioning of an exploratory well in the Satbayev block and next, we will be starting the drilling of second exploratory well in the Satbayev block and we are hoping for positive results," he said. The Kazakhstan President also praised India's progress made in the renewable energy field and in the lieu of this, Prime Minister Modi invited Astana to become a member of International Solar Alliance. "They also discussed cooperation in the field of connectivity to Iran. Both sides considered it as a very important area of trade and economic cooperation. Both sides agreed that connectivity to Chabahar Port would help improve India's trade and economic relations with Central Asia," Jain said. Jain said that both sides also agreed to enhance direct flight connectivity between India and Kazakhstan. "I am glad to announce that there will be two flights connecting Astana and New Delhi that will be launched in the first week of July," he said. (ANI)