Kazakhstan and EU new agreement on partnership considered at 4th round of talks in Brussels.
The Kazakh delegation was headed by Alexei Volkov, the Deputy Foreign Minister, the EU delegation was chaired by Gunnar Wiegand, the Director for Russia, Eastern Partnership, Central Asia, Regional Cooperation and the OSCE of the European External Action Service.
As noted by Alexander Volkov, the EU is ready to cooperate with Kazakhstan and considers our country as a leader in the region of Central Asia. The agreement covers all parties, both regional and bilateral cooperation. These are matters of security, education, environment, trade, investment and other areas of cooperation.
As the Deputy Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan added, "Some questions remain open. This is due to our membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Customs Union (CU). Naturally, we will take any additional obligations under the CU in the framework of our adherence in the Eurasian Economic Union so the negotiations are quite complex, but we hope that the issues will be solved step by step. I think that the summit which is scheduled in Astana at the end of May the current year with the participation of heads of states of the CU will consider many problems".
According to Volkov, approximately 70% of the future agreement has been already agreed upon. The document will provide a firm basis for further development of relations between the EU and Kazakhstan.
"As you know the Agreement on advanced partnership can be called a strategic partnership agreement. But we already have the conventions on strategic partnership with many European countries such as France, Germany, Italy and Spain. So the question is to place our relationship that already exists de facto in a box of de jure. It is understood by our European partners and we understand it either and try to move quite rapidly in this direction", said Aleksey Volkov.
In the course of the 4th round of talks, which took place in Brussels, there were debated almost all sections of the future Agreement covering political, trade-economic, legal, financial and humanitarian cooperation.
Astana and Brussels reaffirmed their interests in the Agreement reflecting a new level of bilateral cooperation between Kazakhstan and the European Union, and provides a solid basis for their long-term equal partnership.