First ever Central Asia - Republic of Korea Forum held at the Ministerial level in Kazakhstan

First ever Central Asia - Republic of Korea Forum held at the Ministerial level in Kazakhstan

NUR-SULTAN, October 16, 2019 — The 12th meeting of the Central Asia - Republic of Korea Forum (CARK) was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan with the participation of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Mukhtar Tileuberdi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea Kang Kyung-wha, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan Chingiz Aidarbekov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan Sirojidin Mukhriddin and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan Abdulaziz Kamilov. Turkmenistan was represented by Ambassador of Turkmenistan to Kazakhstan Toily Komekov.

Opening the meeting of the Forum, Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi highlighted that “the First President of Kazakhstan - Leader of the Nation Nursultan Nazarbayev and President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev pay particular attention to strengthening fraternal good-neighborly relations with the countries of the region where the political will of our leaders played an important role. And the dialogue within the framework of the CARK fully contributes to this process.”

The foreign minister of Kazakhstan also noted that the platform of the Forum is being transformed into an effective mechanism for strengthening regional cooperation and relations between Central Asia and the Republic of Korea.

Within the framework of the Forum, four panel sessions were held with representatives of government agencies, national companies and expert community of the participating countries, during which they discussed prospects for developing the cooperation between the countries of Central Asia and the Republic of Korea in water management, technical standardization, green energy and information technology.

The panel session participants expressed their interest in implementing joint projects in these areas using the best practices of the Republic of Korea.

Kazakh-Korean business consultations on cooperation in water industry were also held with representatives of the business community of the two countries participating.

As a result, a Joint Statement was adopted where the foreign ministers reiterated their intention to further expand mutually beneficial cooperation between the countries of Central Asia and the Republic of Korea.

In addition, the Forum Secretariat Action Plan for 2020 was approved, including cooperation projects in transport and logistics, healthcare, education, culture and tourism.

The Central Asia — Republic of Korea Forum was established at the initiative of the Republic of Korea in 2007. The main areas of its activity are strengthening cooperation in the fields of energy and mineral resources, construction, transport, information and telecommunication technologies, culture and education.