Kazakhstan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Roman Vassilenko and Germany’s Federal Government Commissioner for Repatriates and National Minorities, Bundestag MP Natalie Pawlik co-hosted the 19th meeting of the Kazakh-German Intergovernmental Commission for the Affairs of Ethnic Germans in Kazakhstan, El.kz cites MFA
The Intergovernmental Commission holds regular meetings to lend support to 226 thousand ethnic Germans living in Kazakhstan, as well as promote interest in learning the German language and culture among the rest of Kazakhstan’s population. Together with one million German repatriates from Kazakhstan, our country’s German diaspora constitutes a “living bridge” that acts as an important point of contact for the steadfast development of bilateral interstate ties.
In his opening statement, Deputy Minister Vassilenko noted the special significance of establishing favorable conditions for the coexistence of different peoples in Kazakhstan’s socio-cultural expanse. In this regard, he made a number of proposals to further integrate the German vocational education model and establish local branches of technical universities in Kazakhstan.
“The proven measures undertaken by both governments to promote culture, education, and social ties will continue to contribute to positive future prospects of ethnic Germans in Kazakhstan and ensure that they continue to make an important contribution to our republic’s development, as well as good inter-state relations,” concluded the Kazakh diplomat.
In turn, Pawlik noted the “significant contribution of Kazakhstan’s ethnic German diaspora to the development of friendship and cooperation between the two countries, and underscored the German Federal Government’s support for efforts to strengthen this field of interaction.”
Meeting participants also heard statements from Yevgenii Bolgert, Kazakh Senator and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the “Wiedergeburt” (“Rebirth”) Kazakh Association of Germans, the Deputy Mayor of Astana Yesset Baiken, and the Chair of the Interethnic Relations Development Committee of the Kazakh Ministry of Information and Social Development Galym Shoikin. The German side was informed about the activities of “Wiedergeburt”, Central Asia’s only Kazakh-German University, German cultural centers, schools, the post-Soviet space’s only State National Academic German Drama Theater, as well as the weekly German-language newspaper “Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung”.
At the conclusion of the event, the parties signed a Communiqué providing for further government measures to provide comprehensive support to Kazakhstan’s ethnic German diaspora.