Britain and Kazakhstan have signed trade deals worth 3 billion pounds as London rolled out the red carpet for the country’s autocratic President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The pro-Russian Kazakh leader is due to have lunch with Queen Elizabeth II, when he will be greeted by a guard of honour at Buckingham Palace. Cameron pointed to deals involving four new gas plants and a steel production facility in Kazakhstan as key components of trade ties between the two countries.

Did You Know???

• Nazarbayev has ruled Kazakhstan with virtually no opposition since two years before independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
• He won a fresh five-year term with nearly 98 percent of the vote in a weakly-contested election in April.
• The energy-rich ex-Soviet Central Asian nation is currently struggling to deal with low oil prices and the impact of neighbouring Russia’s economic crisis.
• Kazakhstan’s growth has shrunk to less than a third of 2013 levels on the back of the steep decline in oil prices and the Russian recession.

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What is the capital and currency of Kazakhstan?