President Jiang Zemin said it marked another important step for the two countries in maintaining regional peace and stability.

During yesterday's meeting with visiting Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Jiang backed the smooth development of bilateral relations and both countries' cooperation within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

Jiang said China appreciated the Kazakhstan Government's consistent understanding and support on its position on combating the "East Turkistan" terrorist forces.

Jiang said SCO's top priority is to establish an anti-terrorism organization.

SCO includes China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Jiang said as an influential regional and multilateral co-operative organization, it plays an important role in safeguarding regional peace and stability and promoting common prosperity.

Nazarbayev said his country firmly supported the fighting of terrorism, separatism and extremism.

Nazarbayev reiterated that Kazakhstan would not develop any forms of official ties with Taiwan, saying he believes China will realize final reunification.

Referring to Sino-Kazakh relations, Jiang said the relations have developed rapidly in recent years. He said the border issues existing between Kazakhstan and China have been settled in a complete and overall manner, enabling mutual trust between the two countries.

The two countries signed a demarcation agreement in May to mark the final settlement of border issues.

Among the Commonwealth of Independent States, Kazakhstan is the first to have settled boundary issues with China.

(China Daily December 24, 2002)