[1] In recent years, India has sought to increase its commerce and strategic ties with Kazakhstan, which is the second largest nation of the former Soviet republics and occupies a major expanse of territory in Central Asia with extensive oil, natural gas and mineral reserves.

[2] India has sought to expand ties after mounting concern over the growth of the economic and strategic influence of the People's Republic of China.

[1] In 2002, Nursultan Nazarbayev made an official visit to India and in the same year, the Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee attended the summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia in Kazakhstan's former capital city, Almaty.

[5] The Kazakh national firm KazmunayGaz had offered the ONGC a choice between Satpayev and Makhambet fields and has asked for Indian participation in petrochemical industrial projects in the Atirau and Akhtau regions.

[5] Both nations have also sought to establish extensive collaboration and commerce in information technology, space research, banking and increasing volume of bilateral trade.

[9] India and Kazakhstan have developed close collaboration in fighting religious terrorism an extremism, as well as in promoting regional security.

India unveiled the concept of the pipeline, which in future could be extended to Russia, during a meeting between External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and his visiting Kazakh counterpart Erlan Idrissov.