Kazakhstan strengthening interparliamentary ties with Lithuania
Joining the online meeting were around 20 parliamentarians of Kazakhstan and Lithuania as well as Ambassadors Victor Temirbayev and Gintautas Vasiulis.
In her speech, Aigul Kuspan, Chairwoman of the Committee on International Affairs, Defense, and Security of the Majilis, pointed out that Lithuania is a reliable partner of Kazakhstan in the Baltic region and EU with which cooperation based on friendship and trust is being actively and consistently developed.
She noted that the country’s key initiatives are backed by Lithuanian partners within the UN, OSCE, WTO, Asia-Europe international forum, and other sites, proposing to speed up cooperation between the Parliaments of the two countries.
During the event Kuspan informed about the ongoing reforms in the country, focusing on the new legislation on peaceful meetings, parliamentary opposition, decimalization of defamation, abolishment of capital punishment, enhancement of the support to vulnerable groups, and gender equality.
Last year, trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Lithuania exceeded $482mln despite the pandemic.
The Chairwoman of the Majilis International Affairs, Defense, and Security Committee called for new opportunities to develop transit and transport ties, urged to pair the Viking combined transport train and Trans-Caspian international transport route projects, thus diversifying the transit and transport corridor en route China-Kazakhstan-Europe.
On his part, Chairman of the Seimas Group for Interparliamentary Relations with Kazakhstan Edmundas Pupinis welcomed the recent political transformations regarding the human rights and further development of political competition in Kazakhstan. According to him, the abolishment of capital punishment is the key to further promote trust and mutual understanding between Kazakhstan and the EU.
He added that the Lithuanian parliamentarians expect Majilis Speaker Nurlan Nigmatulin to pay an official visit to Vilnius next year. The visit is set to give a major boost to the strengthening of interparliamentary interaction.
He proposed to hold a business forum Kazakhstan-Lithuania in the framework of the Interparliamentary Commission scheduled for September.
Addressing the event’s participants Gintautas Vasiulis, Lithuanian Ambassador to Kazakhstan, called for placing attention on the importance of expanding trade and economic ties between the countries.
In his speech, he noted that the country is regarded as a gateway to the Central Asian, EAEU, Chinese markets, adding that Lithuania is a «window» to the large EU market.
The sides confirmed the growing role of current parliamentary diplomacy between the States and agreed to step up cooperation.