External affairs minister SushmaSwaraj in AstanaIndia on Friday said that there is immense potential for cooperation with Kazakhstan to be tapped in sectors like agricultural products, food processing, pharmaceuticals, energy and chemicals. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj in Astana said in a media statement that India has keen interest in improving connectivity with this region. "Both the countries have growing cooperation in capacity building. Kazakhstan professionals and students have been attending courses on scholarships in India every year under the ICCR and the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme in a wide range of disciplines," she said. To enhance people-to-people contact and promote tourism, India has extended electronic visa system to the nationals of Kazakhstan, since February 2018. "Thanks to the pro-active leadership of President Nazarbayev, we already notice many positive changes, facilitating travel by Indians to Kazakhstan," she said. She also said that both foreign minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov and she (Ms Swaraj) expressed interest to further strengthen the defence cooperation, based on a solid foundation. "Our defence and security sector cooperation has intensified in the last two years. Kazakh Armed Forces Unit underwent training on peacekeeping operations in India and presently, a mobile training team from the Indian Army is training Kazakh personnel in Almaty," the minister said.
