Delegation headed by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kanat Tumysh visited New Delhi to participate in the 8th round of political consultations between the ministries of foreign affairs of Kazakhstan and India. The Indian side was co-chaired by Secretary (West) of the Ministry of External Affairs Sanjay Verma, El.kz cites MFA.
Tumysh stressed that Kazakhstan attaches particular importance to strengthening comprehensive cooperation with India and considers New Delhi as one of Astana's key strategic partners in Asia. In cultural terms, the peoples of the two countries have a long history of relations, and the installation of busts to the Kazakh poet and thinker Abay Kunanbayev in New Delhi in June 2022 and the Indian public and political figure Mahatma Gandhi in Astana in October 2022 serves as an example of mutual respect and trust between countries and their peoples.
The Deputy Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan congratulated the Indian side on the successful chairmanship of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the G20, noting the holding of important events at a high level.
The parties agreed to intensify contacts at the highest level, including within the framework of the SCO Summit in New Delhi at the end of June 2023.
The parties highly appreciated the state and prospects for further development of trade and economic cooperation, expressed satisfaction with the indicators of bilateral trade turnover, which by the end of 2022 amounted to 2.5 billion US dollars.
Agreed that it is necessary to diversify bilateral relations by deepening cooperation in such areas as medicine, pharmacology, agriculture, information technology, space, energy, etc.
As part of the consultations, the parties exchanged views on the prospects for cooperation in the field of cybersecurity, military and military-technical cooperation and the fight against terrorism.
The diplomats discussed the multilateral format of cooperation within the framework of the UN, SCO, CICA, EAEU and the IAEA. Special attention was paid to the agreements reached following the results of the 1st Central Asia-India Summit (January 27, 2022, in an online format), expressing confidence in the successful holding of the 4th meeting of foreign ministers of the Central Asia-India Dialogue on March 5-6, 2023 in New Delhi.
During his visit to New Delhi, Tumysh held a number of bilateral meetings with Indian officials - Minister of State for External Affairs and Culture Meenakshi Lekhi, Secretary for Petroleum and Natural Gas Pankaj Jain, Secretary (Economic Relations) of the Ministry of External Affairs Dammu Ravi and Joint Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs for Disarmament, International and Cybersecurity Muanpui Sayavi.
At the end of his stay in Delhi, an interactive session was held with representatives of leading Indian media and expert and analytical circles, who were informed about the main directions of Kazakh-Indian cooperation, the implementation of political and economic reforms initiated by the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and the upcoming parliamentary elections in March this year.