Related Event: Iraq In Transition

Kazakhstan would not withdraw its troops from Iraq, President Nursultan Abishevich Nazarbayev said Friday at a parliamentary session in Astana.

Kazakhstan has been maintaining a contingent of 27 sappers in Iraq since August 2003 to help clear land mines there, the president said, adding that the country currently has no plan to pull them out of Iraq.

The president also called it an important part of Kazakhstan's foreign policy to carry out international cooperation in such fields as preventing nuclear proliferation, fighting international terrorism and religious extremism, and combating drug trafficking.

To achieve this, Nazarbayev said, Kazakhstan will further promote the development of the Commonwealth of Independent States Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

(Source: Xinhua)