(AGI) Milan, June 27 - Kazakhstan, which celebrated itsNational Day in the presence of Italian Prime Minister MatteoRenzi and Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbajev at theMilan Expo on Saturday, was the highlight of the day.Kazakhstan's capital, Astana, will host the next InternationalExpo in 2017. "Feeding the Planet - Energy for Life is a verytopical issue. Nobody can afford to underestimate it in any waybecause, in the next few decades, the consumption of globalcommodities will double and this will require increasingefforts by all the Countries of the world," said PresidentNazabajev during the flag hoisting ceremony. He added:"Our country, together with Canada and Australia, with its 250million hectares, is one of the world's largest countries interms of arable land and represents four percent of the world'sresources. Moreover Kazakhstan is among the world's top-tenexporters of wheat and among the first five exporters of flour,exporting 8 million tons of wheat every year to the globalmarket and 2 million tons to the European Union." Inrepresentation of the Italian government, Agriculture MinisterMaurizio Martina said: "The Astana Expo 2017, which will bededicated to the Energy of the Future, will represent astarting point for even closer and friendlier relations betweenour two Countries, in the conviction that Expos are a uniqueinstrument of dialogue, brotherhood, friendship andcollaboration between peoples." At the end of the openingceremony, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and President Nazarbajevmet at the Kazakhstan Pavilion, one of the Expo's mostbeautiful and most widely visited. Later, at the Italian-KazakhBusiness Forum, Mr Renzi emphasised the sound businessrelations that exist between the two countries, saying that"the value that most unites us is sharing the same geopoliticalspace." (AGI) . .