Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev received an honorary doctor's degree from Peking University, and delivered a speech to the Chinese students there Tuesday.
Chinese Vice-Premier Li Lanqing attended the ceremony.
Li, in his speech, recalled the fruitful results brought about by good-neighborly friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Kazakhstan, and spoke highly of the China-Kazakhstan Good-Neighborly Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation signed by the heads of state of the two countries.
He also hoped the younger generations of both countries carry forward and pass on the good-neighborly friendship and the peaceful idea of being always "good neighbors, good friends and good partners" from one to another.
Li also highly praised Nazarbayev's contribution to Sino-Kazakh friendship, and also congratulated him on his receiving the degree.
Nazarbayev expressed his pleasure to receive the degree from Peking University.
He said great changess have taken place in China, which has a long history and a brilliant culture, in the past 20 years. The Kazakh people would like to learn from the Chinese people.
China has always supported Kazakhstan during its development, he noted, saying that the two countries, as good neighbors and good friends, are now joining hands to enlarge their cooperation and build a modern "Silk Road".
Nazarbayev said there are no conflicts but many similarities between Kazakhstan and China. The two countries share the same stand on such issues as combating terrorism, separatism and extremism, and establishing new political and economic orders in afair and rational way.
He expressed his belief that the Kazakh-Chinese cooperation will be passed on from generation to generation.
(Xinhua News Agency December 25, 2002)
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