As part of a working visit to Strasbourg, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Roman Vassilenko held a series of substantive meetings with members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to discuss the prospects for further interaction with the EU legislature, as well as the new report of the European Parliament on the assessment of the 2019 EU Strategy for Central Asia, currently being prepared by members of the EP’s Committee for Foreign Affairs (AFET),El.kz cites MFA.
The Kazakh delegation held meetings with AFET Chair David McAllister, Chair of the Delegation for cooperation with Central Asia and Mongolia (DCAS) Tomáš Zdechovský, Rapporteur for Central Asia Karsten Lucke, Rapporteur for Kazakhstan Klemen Grošelj, as well as members of the Conference of Delegation Chairs of the European Parliament (CPDE) Juozas Olekas and Andrius Kubilius.
The parties discussed a wide range of issues related to political, trade and economic cooperation in the Kazakhstan–EU and Central Asia–EU formats, including connectivity, transport, critical raw materials, and green energy. Moreover, the parties noted the importance of the recent mission by the AFET senior officials and members to Kazakhstan in August 2023, as well as the preparation of the 20th meeting of the Kazakhstan-EU Parliamentary Cooperation Committee (PCC), to be held in November 2023 in Brussels.
MEPs noted that Kazakhstan is a strategically important partner for the European Union, and welcomed the efforts of Kazakhstan to expand trade, economic and investment cooperation with EU member states, including with Germany and the Czech Republic. They are confident that the responsible position of Kazakhstan on acute issues of the global agenda opens up additional opportunities for strengthening the Kazakhstan-EU partnership.
On his part, Roman Vassilenko informed the MEPs about the new initiatives of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, indicated in his State-of-the-Nation Address “Economic Course of a Just Kazakhstan,” as well as about further measures to transform the country’s political system.
Special attention of the MEPs was drawn to the efforts of the Central Asian states to deepen intra-regional cooperation, as well as the results of recent high-level meetings in the C5+1 and Central Asia–Germany dialogues with the participation of US President Joe Biden and Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz, respectively.
MEPs Karsten Lucke and Andrius Kubilius highlighted the importance of promoting the cultural and people-to-people component in EU–Central Asia relations, especially in the fields of education, science, tourism and youth exchanges. DCAS Chair Tomáš Zdechovský noted the need to actively promote educational programs for talented Kazakh youth through the Erasmus+ program.
In his turn, AFET Chair David McAllister expressed support for the bilateral agreements between Kazakhstan and the EU aimed at liberalizing the EU visa regime for citizens of Kazakhstan.
Following the meetings, the parties agreed to continue an active dialogue in order to develop comprehensive cooperation and in the framework of the preparation of the aforementioned European Parliament’s report.