Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s official visit to India in late January 2009 coincided with the country’s Republic Day. Bilateral agreements on cooperation in the economic, oil and scientific spheres were signed during the visit, which showed that strategic partnership between the two countries had entered a new phase.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev paid a state visit to Uzbekistan on 22-23 January and started it in Samarkand. It was the Uzbeks who insisted the visit to be state, not official as Mr Medvedev initially planned. This explains Uzbekistan’s desire to stress its importance over neighbouring rival Kazakhstan.