Dariga Nazarbayeva plans to visit Vatican

AKIPRESS.COM - Chairperson of the Senate of the Kazakh Parliament Dariga Nazarbayeva received Apostolic Nuncio to Kazakhstan Francis Assisi Chullikatt, the Senate reported.
The representative of Vatican highly appreciated the activities of Kazakhstan on strengthening global security by resolution of misunderstandings between the religions and cultures via dialogue.
The two discussed development of interreligious cooperation with the UN organizations.
Speaker of Senate noted that Kazakhstan became the first and only country in Central Asia, which visited Pontifex. "Visit of Pope John Paul II to Astana in 2001 was one of the important events for our country," she said.
Nazarbayeva said she plans to visit Vatican as part of preparations for 7th congress of world and traditional religions. She offered to establish cooperation between Vatican and the Ministry of Health of Kazakhstan.
Apostolic Nuncio raised the visa issue for clerics of Vatican. They have to annually prolong terms of visa, which creates some inconvenience. Nazarbayeva promised to take this issue under control.