FM visits Brussels in advance of start of new Kazakhstan-EU cooperation agreement entry into force
NUR-SULTAN – Kazakh Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi made his first visit to Brussels Jan. 20 to participate in the 17th meeting of the Cooperation Council of the Republic of Kazakhstan-the European Union and meet with high-level officials. Earlier on the same day, the council adopted the conclusion of the EU-Kazakhstan Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement…
Kazakhstan to lead Landlocked Developing Countries group
NUR-SULTAN – Kazakhstan has assumed chairmanship of the Group of Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDC) for 2020-2021. The chairmanship transfer ceremony was held at UN Headquarters in New York with participation from UN member ambassadors and experts and the UN High Representative for Least Developed Countries, LLDCs and Small Island Developing States Fekitamoeloa ʻUtoikamanu. The group…
Kazakh President meets his administration over Middle East Crisis
NUR-SULTAN – President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev met Jan. 8 with the leadership of his administration over concerns about the situation in the Middle East and Iran. The Deputy Prime Minister, the Secretary of the Security Council, the Chairman of the National Security Committee, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Defence, Internal Affairs, and the Chief of the…
Kazakh, Belarusian presidents agree to enhance long-term trade cooperation
NUR-SULTAN – The Presidents of Kazakhstan and Belarus oversaw the signing of five bilateral agreements and held a joint press conference Oct. 25, concluding a two-day official visit by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to the Kazakh capital. Lukashenko’s visit was his first to Kazakhstan since the election of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. The sides discussed economic,…
Tokayev outlines Asia strategy, promises multilateral approach to global issues at Valdai Meeting
NUR-SULTAN – Positioned as a transit and trade bridge between Europe and Asia, located at the crossroads of Islamic, Confucian and East Christian civilizations, Kazakhstan plans to optimise the opportunities coming up with the age of Asia, said Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, outlining core economic and foreign policy trajectories of his country at the Valdai…
President Tokayev calls for removal of trade barriers within EAEU, as union signs FTA with Singapore
NUR-SULTAN – Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called for a removal of trade barriers within the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) during the Oct. 2 Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in Yerevan, Armenia. “In difficult global conditions it is extremely important for us to support sustainable economic growth of our nations. This is possible only through real and…
Kazakhstan to launch compulsory health insurance 10 years in the making
NUR-SULTAN – After almost a decade’s effort, Kazakhstan plans to launch in January 2020 a new system of compulsory insurance. The system is meant to lower the cost of healthcare and expand the number of Kazakhs who have access to healthcare through compulsory contributions by citizens and businesses to the national healthcare system. Government officials…
Kazakh FM visits South Korea on 10th anniversary of strategic relations
NUR-SULTAN – Kazakh Foreign Minister Beibut Atamkulov discussed bilateral relations, international issues and the situation on the Korean Peninsula with South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon and other top officials and business leaders in Seoul on Sept. 16. “The Republic of Korea is one of the key strategic partners in Asia, and our political interaction…
Kazakhstan and China: strengthening friendship and partnership in a new era
NUR-SULTAN – Beibut Atamkulov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, gave an exclusive interview to Kazakhstanskaya Pravda newspaper explaining the results of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s Sept. 11-12 state visit to China. Here’s the translation. Please tell us about the state visit with the President to China. This visit was historical, and built upon the…
Expats give Kazakhstan high marks in new InterNations report
NUR-SULTAN – Kazakhstan has shown the biggest improvement in the 2019 InterNations Business Solutions Expat Insider report, moving 27 ranks up to 22nd place from 49th spot in 2018. Along with Kazakhstan, Indonesia and Qatar have also shown huge improvements with respective 21 and 20 points up comparing to their 2018 scores – thus being…
Kazakh FM discusses cooperation with UAE officials, attends IGC meeting in Abu Dhabi
NUR-SULTAN – Kazakh Foreign Minister Beibut Atamkulov and United Arab Emirates Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan discussed cooperation and investment during Atamkulov’s visit to Abu-Dhabi for the Sept. 8-9 7th meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission (IGC). “The UAE is our key strategic partner in the Middle…
Nazarbayev opens Kazakh pavilion at exhibition hall in Moscow, meets with Putin
NUR-SULTAN – Kazakhstan’s First President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and attended the opening ceremony of Kazakhstan’s pavilion at the VDNH exposition, museum and recreational complex in Moscow. Nazarbayev was visiting Moscow for the city’s 872nd anniversary. Kazakh artists and musicians welcomed pavilion visitors who were presented with Kazakh agricultural products, organic…
Kazakh FM makes first trip to Berlin, discusses economic and political ties
BERLIN – Kazakh Foreign Minister Beibut Atamkulov discussed ways to strengthen economic, political and humanitarian ties with German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas during Atamkulov’s Aug. 19 first visit to Berlin in his capacity. The Kazakh delegation headed by Atamkulov also met with high-level German officials, including Head of the Office of the…
Eurasian Intergovernmental Council discusses integration, status of current agreements
NUR-SULTAN – Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) member states prime ministers discussed ways to increase integration, the status of agreements and future cooperation at the Aug. 9 Eurasian Intergovernmental Council (EIC) meeting in Cholpon Ata, Kyrgyzstan, according to the Kazakh Prime Minister’s office. The prime ministers of Kazakhstan Askar Mamin, Belarus Syarhey Rumas, Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, Kyrgyzstan…
Guarantor states of Syrian talks in Kazakh capital reaffirm commitment to eliminating terrorist groups in Syria
NUR-SULTAN – Russia, Iran and Turkey, the guarantor states of the Astana Process Syrian peace talks in Nur-Sultan, issued a joint statement following Aug. 2 talks in the Kazakh capital reaffirming their commitment to cooperate to eliminate in Syria all groups designated by the United Nations as terrorist organisations. These groups include DAESH/ISIL, Al-Nusra Front…
Iraqi, Lebanese delegations to join Astana Process Syrian talks as observers
NUR-SULTAN – Delegations from Iraq and Lebanon will participate as observers in the 13th round of Astana Process Syrian talks Aug. 1-2 in Nur-Sultan, the Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced July 31. A Syrian government delegation headed by its Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Bashar al-Jaafari and a leader of the armed opposition Ahmad…
Astana Process has contributed to search for peace in Syria, says former UN envoy
Swedish diplomat Staffan de Mistura served as UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Syria from July 2014 to November 2018. The Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs publication Diplomatic Herald recently spoke with de Mistura about peacemaking, the Syrian crisis and the Astana Process. That interview, edited for space and style, is reprinted here. What attracted…
Kazakhstan announces initiatives to reinforce OSCE goals
NUR-SULTAN – Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Beibut Atamkulov briefed participants of a July 8-9 informal Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) ministerial gathering in the High Tatras, Slovakia on the Kazakh initiative to establish an OSCE thematic centre on sustainable connectivity in Nur-Sultan and ways to improve the organisation. The ministerial…
EU announces new EU-funded programmes in Central Asia
NUR-SULTAN – The European Union’s political commitment and a set of European Union-funded regional programmes were announced during a recent high-level meeting in Bishkek between Central Asian ministers of foreign affairs and High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission Federica Mogherini. The announcement marks the official start of the implementation of the…
Tokayev outlines vision for SCO in Bishkek on first foreign trip as newly elected Kazakh President
NUR-SULTAN – Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev outlined his views of the priorities for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) at a June 13 meeting of the heads of the organisation in Bishkek. The meeting was part of the newly elected Kazakh President’s first foreign trip. The SCO was established in 2001 and includes member states Kazakhstan,…
Kazakh President urges CICA to meet its potential to counter regional challenges
NUR-SULTAN – Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev participated in the June 14-15 plenary session of the 5th summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) and met with CICA member nations leaders in Dushanbe. Tokayev told the gathering he believes Tajikistan’s CICA chairmanship will help the organisation contribute to solving issues…
12th round of Astana Process peace talks advances work to launch constitutional committee
NUR-SULTAN – Parties to the 12th round of Astana Process Syrian peace talks April 26 in the Kazakh capital continued efforts to launch a Constitutional Committee to bring peace to Syria. The committee is seen by the sides in the conflict as a way to achieve political reform and hold elections to unify the country.…
Korean President brings ‘Fresh Wind’ to relations in Kazakh capital
NUR-SULTAN – Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and South Korean President Moon Jae-in discussed April 22 the peace process on the Korean Peninsula and bilateral economic cooperation during Moon Jae-in’s three-day state visit to Kazakhstan. The visit marked the 10th anniversary of strategic partnership between the two countries. The two presidents signed a wide-ranging joint statement…
Kazakh FM meets with political, business leaders at sidelines of WEF in Jordan
NUR-SULTAN – Kazakh Minister of Foreign Affairs Beibut Atamkulov met with more than a dozen political and business leaders on the sidelines of the April 6 World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa (WEF MENA) at the Dead Sea in the Jordan. The event in the Jordanian capital attracted more than 1,000…
New Kazakh President makes first foreign visit to Moscow, reaffirms priority of relations
NUR-SULTAN – Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Russian President Vladimir Putin noted the positive state of bilateral relations April 3 in Moscow and agreed to simplify cross-border trade during Tokayev’s first foreign visit as the head of state. “I intend to ensure the continuity of the policy of the First President of the Republic of…
