ALMATY - Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi met here on Saturday with his Kazakh counterpart Yerzhan Kazykhanov on bilateral cooperation.

The strategic partnership between China and Kazakhstan is now developing comprehensively and rapidly, Yang said during their talks on the sidelines of a meeting of Foreign Ministers' Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

China would like to join hands with Kazakhstan to promote bilateral relations to a new level, which is necessary for the development of the two countries and regional situation, Yang said.

China hopes that both countries can comprehensively promote bilateral cooperation in various fields and determine the direction for the long-term development of bilateral ties by intensifying exchanges of high-level visits, Yang added.

He also thanked Kazakhstan for its efforts to host the SCO Astana summit in June.

The Chinese side is willing to fully cooperate with Kazakhstan to help make the meeting a success and lay a solid political foundation for the SCO's long-term stable and healthy development, he said.

Kazykhanov said Kazakhstan highly values its relations with China and would like to work with China to fully implement the consensus reached between the two countries' leaders on the further development of bilateral relations to push them to a new high.

He thanked China for its support and said Kazakhstan would like to enhance coordination with China and other partners to hold a successful SCO summit.