U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice praised Kazakhstan for its involvement in the Iraq war, during a visit to the strategically important central Asian nation on Sunday, according to dpa. Washington feels "deep gratitude" for the deployment of Kazakh mine-clearing troops following the fall of the Saddam regime in Iraq, Rice said in the capital, according to reports by the Interfax news agency. In Afghanistan the Kazakhs had also "helped greatly", she added. Kazakh Foreign Minister Marat Tashkin said that "I should underline that our relationship with the United States has stable, strategic character," while stressing that it was not at the expense of relations with Russia.
