Kazakh and U.S. leaders reiterate need for peaceful solution in Ukraine
ASTANA. March 11 (Interfax) - The presidents of Kazakhstan and the United States, Nursultan Nazarbayev and Barack Obama, exchanged opinions on key international and regional issues with a focus on the situation in Ukraine during their latest telephone conversation, the Kazakh presidential press service reported on Tuesday.
"The presidents of Kazakhstan and the U.S. reaffirmed the need to secure a peaceful settlement in Ukraine with the help of diplomatic methods that will help maintain the territorial integrity of this country and bridge the gap between the positions of all the sides concerned," it said.
Nazarbayev said that this problem should be tackled exclusively through negotiations involving all of the concerned sides.
Obama, for his part, proposed establishing a viable mechanism under the auspices of international organizations such as the UN or the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in order to try to resolve the continuing crisis in Ukraine, the press service said.
Apart from that, the Kazakh and U.S. leaders discussed the current state of bilateral relations and their prospects, as well as preparations for the March 24-25 Nuclear Security Summit in the Hague.