Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev plans to visit Tokyo as early as late June, with negotiations for an agreement on nuclear cooperation with Japan possibly on the agenda, officials from Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday.
Japan started talks on a nuclear cooperation agreement with the Central Asian country last June but they have been stalled since autumn.
The two governments are now working on the details of President Nazarbayev's visit to Tokyo, such the schedule and agenda, said the officials.
Japan has been strengthening ties with Kazakhstan since 2006 to secure uranium supplies and processing capacity to meet demand from its nuclear power stations.
But Japan, which has signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, is pressing Kazakhstan to accept inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency to allow it to enter into a nuclear agreement.