Ambassador of Kazakhstan: you recognize a friend in need

Ambassador of Kazakhstan: you recognize a friend in need

Translation of an article from the online newspaper Finančné Noviny

from 04/21/2020

 


Ambassador of Kazakhstan: you recognize a friend in need

 


BRATISLAVA - A friend is known in need - every nation probably has such a saying. The current global economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic is such a disaster that tests not only our world for stability, but also the true price of relations.

 


It is gratifying to see how Slovakia, itself experiencing the most serious stress from the crisis, is helping other states. Such steps as the decision of the Slovak Government to provide humanitarian assistance to Italy in the amount of 250 thousand euros in connection with the pandemic of the coronavirus COVID-19 are worth a lot and are never forgotten.

Kazakhstan, whose economy is also facing powerful headwinds from the coronacrisis and falling energy prices, is also striving to help its neighbors, the closest and more. The other day, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev decided to provide humanitarian assistance to Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in the form of deliveries of flour in the amount of 5 thousand tons to each country for a total amount of over $ 3 million. In February, Kazakhstan was one of the first to provide partner support to China in the midst of the COVID-19 epidemic in the form of several deliveries of medical protective equipment.

Willingness to help others is part of the worldview of the Kazakh people, who have experienced severe shocks throughout their history.

In addition to the revolution and two world wars, a mass famine took place along our people’s rink, deportation of entire peoples of the former Soviet Union to the vast steppes of Kazakhstan and repression in the 1930s, four decades of testing Soviet nuclear weapons. These trials, when the Kazakhs shared the last piece of bread and a slice of kurt with Russians, Germans, Chechens, Koreans, Poles, Greeks, Turks, and people of many other nationalities who turned out to be far from home voluntarily, strengthened hospitality, compassion and concern for others as one of the most important components of the national identity of our multinational people.

That is why, since gaining independence in December 1991, Kazakhstan, while still building a sovereign state, but already seeking to contribute to solving world problems according to the foreign policy of the First President Nursultan Nazarbayev, has provided humanitarian assistance to other countries for more than $ 500 million.

We have helped and are helping not only the neighbors in the region, but also the states in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America,

Afghanistan, a regional neighbor that has been at war for decades. Our country not only regularly provides flour and grain to Afghans (by the way about recycling, being in Kabul on a visit I was interested to see roadblocks lined with sandbags with the inscription қ bidai - white flour - in Kazakh). We also helped build schools, hospitals, roads. Based on the understanding that youth is the future of any country, 10 years ago Kazakhstan launched a program worth $ 50 million to train 1,000 Afghans in peaceful specialties at our universities. Today, Kazakhstan, together with the European Union and the UN Development Program, is working on a new educational program for this long-suffering country, under the auspices of which Afghan girls take over the peaceful profession in our country and Uzbekistan.

Slovakia is known for the active work of the Slovak Agency for Development Assistance SlovakAid, the experience of which was studied by us in the process of creating a similar program and structure in Kazakhstan - KazAid - work on which is still ongoing.

I believe that assistance to Slovakia, Kazakhstan and many other countries will continue, and that, acting together, the international community will not only overcome the pandemic faster and overcome the economic crisis caused by it, but also build a renewed world in which the ideals of humanism, mutual assistance and compassion will remain lasting value.

Arriving in Slovakia in January this year as the first ambassador of Kazakhstan with a residence in Bratislava, I was very impressed by the presence of many similarities between our countries in terms of history, geography, and not only. Both countries did not have their own statehood for a long time, became independent less than thirty years ago and were forced to build a sovereign state and a market economy amid serious challenges. Both Kazakhstan and Slovakia are landlocked and have larger neighbors. Both countries are multinational. And the hospitality, wide soul and cheerfulness of the Slovaks gave me, my family and my colleagues the opportunity to feel at home from the first day of our life here.

During the first weeks of the work of our embassy, ​​before the advent of coronaviruses and government bodies and countries of the world, dozens of meetings and new attempts were held, and we were convinced of the great opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation between industry, engineering, energy, IT, pharmaceuticals and tourism. For Kazakhstan, there is also an interest in the experience and technologies of Slovakia in the field of hydrology, forest management and landscaping. Already today in Kazakhstan there are about 40 companies with Slovak participation. We also identified the prospect of cooperation in the field of production.


medical devices, including ventilators and remote thermometers.

The European Union is the gateway to the Central Asian region. Kazakhstan’s membership in the Eurasian Economic Union and our neighborhood with China offer great opportunities for creating joint ventures in Kazakhstan in order to promote products in the EU and Europe, as well as in China. Prospects of our cooperation since March 1 of this year, when the Agreement on Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation between Kazakhstan and the European Union and its member states entered into full force.

Someone that today may not be so difficult. We plan our cooperation after completion and limited measures.

We can overcome the crisis and minimize its negative consequences for the economy and society, and we can quickly return to our relations. on the growth path of our economies.

 

 

Roman Vasilenko, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the Slovak Republic

 


(Written specifically for the online newspaper Finančné Noviny)