I was very excited when I received an invitation from the Astana Economic Forum to participate in an international seminar on global economy to be held in Astana in the third week of May. Apart from the fact that participation in this conference would give me an opportunity once again to meet some old friends from the world of global finance, it would also enable me to visit a city I always wanted to visit. I had, in 2003, as the Minister of External Affairs of India, visited Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan, but all I remembered of that visit was the tour of the famous skiing site near the city. I could not make a trip to Astana, the new capital city of Kazakhstan during that visit.