Kazakh Foreign Minister took part in the 18th meeting of the Kazakhstan-EU Cooperation Council in Brussels

Kazakh Foreign Minister took part in the 18th meeting of the Kazakhstan-EU Cooperation Council in Brussels

Brussels, May 10, 2021 - Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Mukhtar Tileuberdi took part in the 18th meeting of the Kazakhstan-EU Cooperation Council. At the talks in Brussels, the European side was represented by Augusto Santos Silva, the Minister of State and Foreign Affairs of Portugal, a country that is currently holding the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

This meeting of the Cooperation Council was the first one after the entry into force of the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (EPCA) between Kazakhstan and the EU in March 2020. In this regard, the parties considered urgent issues of political, trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian cooperation in the context of the commencement of the implementation of EPCA. This document covers 29 promising areas of cooperation, including issues of international and regional security, trade, investment, infrastructure development, as well as innovation, culture, sports and tourism.

As part of efforts to expand trade, economic and investment cooperation, the parties substantively discussed issues of diversifying mutual trade. Among other issues, the parties touched upon the topic of establishing the supply of Kazakh agricultural and fish products to the EU countries.

A special interest was confirmed in enhancing mutually beneficial partnership in green energy, transport, environmental protection, education and science. In particular, they brought up the issue of further expanding the access of Kazakh youth to various programs of academic and scientific exchanges with the EU, such as Erasmus+ and Horizone Europe.

An important item in the framework of the implementation of EPCA is the facilitation of the visa regime for citizens of Kazakhstan visiting the EU countries. Minister Tileuberdi highlighted this subject among the priorities of the cooperation, as well as the importance of stepping up substantive negotiations on mutual trips of citizens.

The hot topic of discussion was the vaccination of the population against the coronavirus. The parties briefed about the progress of the respective work, shared their vision of the prospects for further efforts in this area, and discussed the prospects for the so-called “green certificates” to be introduced by the European Union in June 2021 for travelers and tourists. In this regard, Minister Tileuberdi spoke about the achievements of Kazakh scientists who have created the QazVac vaccine and proposed to jointly promote cooperation between the relevant scientific institutions of Kazakhstan and the EU in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Kazakhstani side provided the European colleagues with details on the progress of the political reforms initiated by the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as part of the “Listening State” Concept. The European partners positively assessed the implementation of the third package of reforms.

At the end of the meeting of the Kazakhstan-EU Cooperation Council, Mr. Tileuberdi held a press conference for the European and Kazakh media.

 

The European Union is a key trade and investment partner of Kazakhstan, which accounts for about half of the foreign trade turnover and investments in the economy of our country.

Trade turnover in January-February of 2021 amounted to $3.7 billion, in 2020 to $23.7 billion (including $17.7 billion in exports and $6 billion in imports), in 2019 to $31.4 billion.

Kazakhstan became the first country in the Central Asian region to sign an Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with the EU in 2015.