China and Kazakhastan will sign about a dozen agreements of cooperation during Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev's upcoming visit, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Thursday.

Nazarbayev will pay a state visit to China from Dec. 19 to 23 as guest of his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, and the two sides will exchange views on expanding cooperation in various fields.

Chinese President Hu Jintao, top legislator Wu Bangguo and Premier Wen Jiabao will hold talks or meet with him respectively, Qin said.

"China and Kazakhstan have maintained a good-neighborly relationship and the two sides will celebrate 15th anniversary of diplomatic relations next January," Qin said.

In the past 15 years, Qin said, the bilateral ties between the two countries have been deepening and the China-Kazakhstan strategic partnership has scored fruitful achievements within bilateral or regional organization framework.

China highly values its relations with Kazakhstan which is an important neighbor and partner of China, he added.

Source: Xinhua