During the meeting, the President reiterated Kazakhstan's strong supports for the principles underpinning the WTO, and for its role in strengthening and expanding trade and economic relations between its members. DG Azevedo thanked President Nazarbayev for Kazakhstan's successful bid to host the Ministerial Conference, and welcomed the opportunity to deepen cooperation between Kazakhstan and the WTO.

After the meeting DG Azevêdo said:

“President Nazarbayev and I discussed the current trends of the global economy, the tensions that we see in the trading system and possible steps to resolve those tensions. The meeting was very fruitful. I thanked the President for supporting Kazakhstan's active membership of the multilateral trade system and for the government's initiative to host the WTO Ministerial Conference in 2020. This will be a historic event. I look forward to further developing the cooperation between the WTO and Kazakhstan.”

The Director-General also met Kazakhstan's Prime Minister, Bakytzhan Sagintayev.

In addition, DG Azevêdo addressed the Seventh China Round Table on WTO Accessions, which has been held in Astana this week. His remarks are available here.

DG Azevêdo also spoke at a high-level forum on advancing trade and investment facilitation for development in Astana on 28 September. His remarks are available here.