Foreign Minister Beibut Atamkulov met with Director of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE/ODIHR) Ingibjörg Gísladóttir, Head of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE Observer Mission and Chair of the OSCE PA's Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian QuestionsMargareta Kiener Nellen,and Head of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission Urszula Gacek.

The friendly and constructive meeting was focused on the results of the OSCE mission to observe the early election of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The Foreign Minister stressed the significant achievements of Kazakhstan in the short period of time since independence. The economy has been strengthened, incomes have grown, thesociety isviewed as a model of stability and tolerance, and the republic hasentered a new stage of political development. It was noted that the expression of citizens' will had been honest, open and fair - in full compliance with the law and international obligations.

The OSCE/ODIHRDirector congratulated Kazakhstan on the successfulearly presidential election and thanked the country for creating favorable conditions for the work of the mission. According to the Head of the ODIHR, the election campaign in Kazakhstan had been conducted with almost no violations. She also noted the constructive responseby the Kazakh authorities tothe report, including their plans for further reforms.She said that somegovernmentscategoricallydidnotacceptsuchreports. “There is a saying in Iceland:'Your friend will always tell you the truth, and your enemy will say that everything is fine'," the ODIHR Director said.

In turn, the Foreign Minister said that there was a similar saying in Kazakh,“your friend tells the truth even though it is bitter and your enemy says what you want to hear." He assured the officials that the Government of Kazakhstan would take into account the comments and recommendations mentioned in the statement on the election outcome.

“We congratulate the newly-elected president on his election victory. And the most important thing is that we have a dialogue with your government,"Ms. Nellen said. According to her, the interaction of observers with local authorities was very constructive, andshe expressed hope for further fruitful cooperation. More than 900 international observers took part in the election observation, including 866 observers from acrossnineinternational organizations.

227 foreign correspondents and journalists from more than 40 countries were accredited, which was a record figure inthe history of Kazakh elections.