Philip J. Crowley, the US Assistant State Secretary, said: “And finally, we had a successful completion of the annual bilateral consultations over the past couple of days between the United States and Kazakhstan. Leading the Kazakhstan delegation was Deputy Foreign Minister Kayrat Umarov, and he met with Assistant Secretary of State Bob Blake.”

“The talks centered on political security, economic energy, and human rights issues. I think Deputy Foreign Minister Umarov had the opportunity to participate here in Washington in a business forum with American companies as well as a forum on democracy and human rights here in town [Washington D.C.],” he said.