Kazakhstan is an important partner of Germany which is ready for further deepening of cooperation, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a telephone conversation with Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry said.
During the conversation, the sides discussed the whole range of issues of cooperation between Kazakhstan and Germany, as well as implementation of the agreements reached following the talks between President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev and Federal President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier in July 2017 in Astana.
A significant package of economic and investment agreements signed during last year’s visit of the German leader and including 21 projects worth more than $1 billion has already yielded the first fruits. Thanks to joint efforts, the trade turnover in 2017 reached €5 billion and over 90% of German investments are directed to the “non-resource” sector of the Kazakh economy.
The sides expressed mutual interest in implementing joint projects aimed at modernizing the economy and industrializing Kazakhstan. In this context, Abdrakhmanov invited the German side to be more active in exploring the opportunities opening with the launch of the Astana International Financial Center, IT Startups Park, as well as the International Center for Green Technologies and Investment Projects.
They stressed the important role of a million Kazakh Germans in Germany and two hundred thousand ethnic Germans in Kazakhstan, acting as a “living bridge” of friendship between the two countries.
The Kazakh Foreign Minister emphasized the significant German contribution to the development and implementation of the 2007 European Union Strategy for Central Asia, which laid a solid foundation for cooperation between the EU and Central Asian countries. Abdrakhmanov noted that Kazakhstan would make every effort to effectively implement the new Strategy, which the European Union plans to adopt next year.
Abdrakhmanov invited Maas to pay a visit to Kazakhstan.
