Brussels hosted Berlin Eurasian Club's session
During panel discussions the European experts noted dynamic and efficient socio-economic development of Kazakhstan, timeliness and practical importance of the country's foreign policy activities and highlighted a special role played by Kazakhstan in Central Asian region.
"Our relations with Kazakhstan are very strong. We agreed to sign an Extended Partnership and Cooperation Agreement. The EU has not signed similar documents with other CA states before. This demonstrates that Kazakhstan has been the main partner for the European Union as well as the EU remains an important partner for Kazakhstan," head of the EEAC Central Asia Division Toivo Klaar noted.
Taking the floor, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Alexey Volkov told about Kazakhstan's foreign policy priorities and stressed the importance of development of common approaches for Kazakhstan and European Union in the context of present threats to EU and CA security.
"The conference of the foreign affairs ministers of the Central Asian and the EU countries has been an important platform for implementation of the EU's updated strategy for CA. Kazakhstan attaches great importance to this event and hopes that the next summit will be held in Astana in 2016 under the chairmanship of High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini," Volkov noted.
According to him, Kazakhstan is among the countries enjoying high average income, therefore against the background of escalation of the international and regional situation, our country is viewed as one of the main destinations for refugees. In this regards, Kazakhstan establishes KazAid agency which will regulate the migration processes from Central Asia and Afghanistan and will contribute to the resolution of socio-economic and humanitarian problems of the region.
"KazAid will be an official authority responsible for coordination and expansion of our efforts in development. For instance, we provide considerable aid to Afghanistan and contribute to the international efforts on conducting the same work in other CA countries," Volkov added.
Besides, the Deputy FM drew the participants' attention to the propositions and initiatives outlined by Kazakhstan regarding the content of the EU Strategy for CA. The Kazakh Diplomat briefed also about strategic documents being implemented in Kazakhstan including the Nation's Plan and Five Institutional Reforms initiated by President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Berlin Eurasian Club was founded in 2012 in light on implementation of Kazakhstan President's idea on Eurasianism and Road to Europe State Program as a dialogue platform for discussing a wide spectrum of socio-political issues between Kazakhstan and Germany as well as European Union.