Kazakhstan, Astana, July 21 / Trend, A. Maratov /
Kazakhstan supports the German side's efforts to join the UN Security Council permanent members, Kazakh Foreign Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov said during his speech at the foundation in Germany.
Kazakhstan and Germany reached a high level of confidence, openness, mutual understanding and hold similar positions and evaluations on issues of international agenda, such as nuclear non-proliferation and the situation in Afghanistan.
"Today, Kazakhstan is a leading economic partner of Germany in Central Asia, and Germany is major trading partner of Kazakhstan in Europe. In 2010, our bilateral trade turnover exceeded 5.2 billion euros (+43 percent)," Kazykhanov said.
He said a good legal and institutional foundation has been laid in trade and economic sphere. In addition to the Intergovernmental Kazakh-German working group on trade and economic cooperation (IWG), the Kazakh-German Business Council for Strategic Cooperation has been operating since July 2010, which brought together leading Kazakh and German economic structures and become a real bridge between the businessmen of both countries.
"Kazakhstan is becoming increasingly important for European energy security. Our country is among the top three suppliers of oil to Germany," Kazykhanov said. "We can increase our contribution to ensuring Germany's energy needs subject to large-scale investments and introducing advanced technologies, including energy conservation and alternative energy," he added.