Chinese President Hu Jintao has arrived in Astana, Kazakhstan for a state visit and the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The visiting Chinese President met with his Kazakh counterpart, Nursultan Nazarbayev Monday, to discuss ways to elevate the Sino-Kazakhstan strategic partnership.

Chinese President Hu Jintao (L) shakes hands with his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev in the signing ceremony of the Joint Declaration of China and Kazakhstan on Development of All-round Strategic Partnership in Astana, Kazakhstan, June 13, 2011. [Xinhua]

This is President Hu Jintao's first state visit after Nursultan Nazabayev took office. And Hu Jintao was warmly welcomed by a grand ceremony hosted by his Kazakh counterpart Nazabayev in Astana.

In a meeting after the ceremony, Hu Jintao noted that China and Kazakhstan will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties next year, and bilateral ties have seen great development over the years.

President Nazarnayev said Hu's visit is of historical significance. And he emphasized that the two countries will sign a series of documents on bilateral cooperation.

He also stated that the agreement on upgrading bilateral ties will be a very important one that marks the beginning of a new era of Sino-Kazakh relations.

He also expressed the belief that through the signing of the agreements, the two countries will push their bilateral relations to a new height.

Hu Jintao said the two countries have common concerns in the field of security, therefore they both need to strengthen cooperation on law enforcement and security affairs through bilateral mechanisms and within the framework of the SCO to fight extremism, separatism and terrorism as well as organized crime to maintain peace and stability in Central Asia.

The two sides also set a target of 40 billion US dollars for bilateral trade by 2015, and decided to comprehensively advance their cooperation in trade, investment, finance, and the high-tech sector and jointly implement more large cooperation projects of mutual benefit to further bolster economic and trade ties.

At a joint press conference after their talks, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazatbayev signed the joint declaration of China and Kazakhstan on Development of All-round Strategic Partnership.

After Kazakhstan, Hu will pay state visits to Russia and Ukraine, and attend an economic forum in St. Petersburg.