Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev has met with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and voiced hope for closer cooperation between the two countries.
Nazarbaev spoke to Tillerson on the sidelines of a summit of Muslim countries attended by U.S. President Donald Trump in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on May 21.
The Kazakh president's office said that Nazarbaev "expressed the hope that interaction between Kazakhstan and the United States will enter a qualitatively new level of development in many areas."
In a statement, Nazarbaev's office also said he and Tillerson discussed the prospects for enhancing cooperation and exchanged opinions on current international affairs.
Energy-rich Kazakhstan has close ties with Russia, its fellow former Soviet republic, but has also sought to build up relations with Western nations and its neighbor China, among others.