President George W. Bush heaped praise on the president of Kazakhstan, a Central Asian country important to the United States as an oil supplier and war-on-terror ally but which has a political system that stifles dissent.
U.S. concerns over President Nursultan Nazarbayev's heavy-handed rule did not come up when the two leaders appeared before reporters after their nearly hourlong Oval Office meeting Friday. Instead, the two were all compliments in brief comments that came before Bush hosted a private luncheon for Nazarbayev in the White House residence.
International Herald Tribune
