President Peres on state visit to Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan
The visit is intended to strengthen and expand the strategic, political and
economic ties between Israel and the two Muslim countries.
(Communicated by the President's Spokesperson)28 June 2009

The President of the State of Israel, Shimon Peres, will be visiting
Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan on 28 June - 1 July 2009 for the first state visit
of a senior Israeli official since the establishment of diplomatic relations
between Israel and the two Muslim states.

President Peres will be accompanied by a delegation of government
officials - the Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer;
the Minister of National Infrastructures, Uzi Landau; the Minister of
Science and Technology, Daniel Hershkowitz; and the Director General of the
Ministry of Defense, Pinchas Buchris - as personal guests of Presidents
Nursultan Nazarbayev (Kazakhstan) and Ilham Aliev (Azerbaijan). Joining the
government delegation are 60 senior officials of leading companies in the
Israeli economy in the fields of water technology, agriculture,
communications and medical technology, and CEOs of defense industries.

The President's Bureau, together with the Export Institute and the
Manufacturers' Association, put together a delegation of senior
businesspeople from a broad spectrum of the Israeli economy. Some of the
companies represented are Ness Technologies, Housing & Construction Holding
Company Ltd., ECI Telecom Ltd., Elbit Systems, Elisra Electronic Systems
Ltd., Magal Security Systems Ltd., Vertex Venture Capital, and others.

President Peres' visit is intended to strengthen and expand the strategic,
political and economic ties between Israel and the two Muslim countries
situated between Russia, China and Iran. Both states have high strategic
importance in the regional as well as the international arenas and are major
suppliers of oil and natural gas to Israel and to the world.

During his visits, President Peres will hold political meetings with
Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliev and with Prime Minister Artur Rasizade.
In Kazakhstan he will meet with the upper political echelon, first and
foremost with the president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, and with Prime Minister
Karim Masimov and Senate Speaker Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev. President Peres will
bring up for discussion various diplomatic and security issues as well as
the potential for economic-technological cooperation between the two states.

In addition, the hosting presidents will each hold a press conference
together with President Peres. The Israeli president is also expected to
participate in several major events. The president of Kazakhstan has invited
him to be the keynote speaker at an inter-religious conference with hundreds
of Muslim leaders and religious figures from the Middle East and around the
world - including the Qatar Emir, the chief rabbis of Israel and the
Minister of Religion Affairs - in attendance.