Kazakhstan, Norway stand ready to enhance mutually beneficial cooperation

NUR-SULTAN. KAZINFORM - Kazakhstan and Norway will continue to develop bilateral and multilateral cooperation. This was stated during the meeting between Minister of Foreign Affairs Mukhtar Tileuberdi with State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Norway Audun Halvorsen, Kazinform has learnt from the press service of the Kazakh MFA.

Speaking of international interaction between the two countries, Minister Tileuberdi noted the successful joint activities within the UN and therefore proposed to extend this tradition to other areas.

The Minister expressed his satisfaction with his recent talks with Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last September in New York. He reaffirmed the official Nur-Sultan’s strong commitment to further strengthening relations with Oslo across the entire spectrum of bilateral and multilateral cooperation and invited his counterpart to visit Kazakhstan in 2020.

The same day, the Kazakh delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister Roman Vassilenko hosted the Norwegian diplomats at the next round of the political consultations between the two Foreign Ministries. The sides discussed the current political, trade and economic cooperation and its development opportunities, strengthening the legal framework, as well as a number of key issues on the international and regional agendas.

In the context of the enhancement of the political dialogue, the diplomats expressed their confidence the proposed mutual visits in 2020 will provide a new impetus to the strengthening of bilateral relations. They also emphasized the need for a greater dialogue between Kazakhstan’s Parliament and the Storting.

The discussion further focused on strengthening trade and economic ties. The sides expressed their hope that successful cooperation between KazMunayGas and Equinor based on the recent Agreement on joint geological exploration will lay a solid foundation for further expansion of the economic cooperation between the two states.

The introduction of Norwegian technologies in Kazakhstan’s oil and gas sector and in the field of renewable energy sources, transfer of advanced agricultural technologies and the development of aquaculture, as well as bilateral projects in transport and logistics were mentioned as promising areas for the joint activities.

Trade turnover for January-September 2019 amounted to $63.2 mln. (export – $8.2 mln., import – $55 mln.). At the regional level, diplomats reviewed mutually beneficial opportunities opening up in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative on the Eurasian continent.

In further exchange of views, Kazakh and Norwegian diplomats praised the common positions the two countries share towards fight against international terrorism, ensuring regional security and other items on international and regional agendas.

Secretary of State Halvorsen was interested to learn about Kazakhstan’s efforts to stabilize Afghanistan, implementation of the EU, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan tripartite educational project aimed at empowerment of Afghan women through education, contribution of the Astana Processtalks to peaceful settlement of the Syrian crisis, as well as fruitful outcomes of Jusan special humanitarian operation.

Deputy Minister Vassilenko, in turn, expressed gratitude for Oslo’s continuous support for Kazakhstan’s international initiatives: the Kingdom of Norway is one of the international donors for the IAEA Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) Bank established in Kazakhstan in 2017.

The sides continued their discussions with the overviewing Norwegian peacebuilding practices and agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation in this important area.