Foreign secretary Jack Straw said today that Britain saw Kazakhstan as its strategic partner in Central Asia, and praised the investment climate in the former Soviet republic

Straw met with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Foreign Minister Kasymzhomart Tokayev in the capital, Astana, and discussed co-operation in energy, environmental protection and defence. “The purpose of my visit is to show the importance the United Kingdom attaches to the relationship that we have with Kazakhstan, to emphasise Kazakhstan’s importance in the region,” Straw said after the talks. Straw also said British business people had great interest in Kazakhstan. He said he had spoken with several British businessmen who were working in Kazakhstan and ”were full of praise for the business environment here”. Straw, whose one-day visit was his first to the country, offered Britain’s assistance to Kazakhstan’s small and medium-sized business. Kazakhstan has attracted the most foreign investment among the former Soviet republics, largely due to its huge energy resources and successful post-Soviet market reforms. Britain is among Kazakhstan’s biggest foreign investors, with its investments here totalling nearly £1.5 billion in the past 10 years. British Gas is involved in developing western Kazakhstan’s giant Karachaganak oil field. It also holds a 25% stake in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which operates a pipeline from the major Kazakh Tengiz oil field near the Caspian Sea to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossyisk.