ASTANA – A сommuniqué outlining further bilateral government measures to support the ethnic German diaspora in Kazakhstan was signed in Berlin during the 19th meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission on ethnic Germans living in Kazakhstan, reported the Kazakh Foreign Ministry’s press service on March 28.
Kazakh Deputy Foreign Minister Vassilenko and Federal Government Commissioner for Repatriates and National Minorities Pawlik. Photo credit: Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The meeting of the commission, which aims to support 226,000 ethnic Germans in Kazakhstan and promote interest in learning the German language and culture among the country’s population, was chaired by Roman Vassilenko, Deputy Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan, and Natalie Pawlik, Federal Government Commissioner for Repatriates and National Minorities and a member of the German Bundestag.
Vassilenko proposed to continue integrating the German vocational education model and develop local branches of technical universities in Kazakhstan.
The Intergovernmental Commission’s regular meetings aim to support 226,000 ethnic Germans living in Kazakhstan. Photo credit: Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“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,” he said.
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.
The meeting also featured a presentation on the work of the Wiedergeburt Kazakh Association of Germans, Central Asia’s only Kazakh-German University, German cultural centers, schools, the State National Academic German Drama Theater, and Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, a weekly German-language newspaper.
