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IT may be 2500 miles from Edinburgh but the top issue for students of politics in Kazakhstan is ... Scottish independence.

David Cameron was taken aback yesterday to be quizzed on the pros and cons of separation in the first question he took from students at Nazarbayev University in the capital, Astana.

Cameron staged the session during a trade mission to the central Asian republic.

The questions were supposed to be vetted beforehand and he was surprised when he was asked for his opinion on the referendum issue.

A student called Agrem, who spent four years as a student in Scotland, wanted to know what the Prime Minister of Britain thought of independence.

A bemused Cameron replied: “Very good. It may well seem a long, long way here in Kazakhstan but it is a very important question in the United Kingdom.”

He quickly found his stride with a standard reply about Scotland and England being “stronger, more

prosperous, safer and better off together”.

And he added: “I hope when you come back to Scotland, it is still part of the UK.”

Cameron handled the exchange with ease but some of the UK Government entourage were mildly exasperated. One official said: “You go halfway around the world and what’s the first thing they want to know about – Alex Salmond.”

Later, Cameron received a glowing endorsement from Kazakhstan’s president, Nursultan Nazarbayev.

The dictator first told the visiting PM to stop lecturing him on human rights – then lavished praise on him at a joint press conference.

The Kazakh strongman declared: “I would vote for him, personally.”

Cameron desperately tried to laugh off the embarrassing words of support, which came after he spent an evening cosying up to the aging autocrat in a bar called The Irish Pub.

But he was also left red-faced over Britain’s refusal to grant a visa to a Kazakh artist who has no hands because he could not provide fingerprints.