Baku, Azerbaijan, September 1
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
Central Asia is one of the Latvia’s prioritized regions for cooperation and Kazakhstan undoubtedly plays one of the key roles in this partnership, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia told Trend.
"Due to the fact that Kazakhstan is a transit hub of the region, it can provide for transport of Latvian cargo to countries of Central, East and South-East Asia," the source in the ministry said.
"In turn, Latvia provides Kazakh cargo owners with complex, safe and effective services for transport and distribution of cargo to world markets. This is why we can surely state that cooperation between Kazakhstan and Latvia in the transport and logistics area is certainly among the most important areas in bilateral agenda," the source noted.
The source also stated that the direct flights between Latvia and Kazakhstan have been resumed last year.
"These flights provide for development of tourism and business. The airBaltic company is implementing regular flights between Riga and Almaty three times a week during the summer season," the source mentioned.
According to the source, the countries also devote great attention to cooperation in the education area, in particular to contacts between universities. Thus, during 2018/2019 academic year, some 214 students from Kazakhstan have been studying in universities of Latvia, which is the eighth largest indicator.
The source further noted that Latvia has gone a long way to adopt EU standards, which is why this expertise is in demand.
"Currently, Latvian specialists are consulting Kazakh colleagues in the area of food safety, animal health, education, standardization and issues of implementation of clean technologies," the source in the ministry said.
Furthermore, the relations between countries are historically characterized by mutual respect and constructive nature and are fruitfully developing both in bilateral format and within the framework of international organizations. During last 28 years, Kazakhstan and Latvia developed close cooperation in politics, economy and cultural and humanitarian field, the source added.
"Currently, there are certain preconditions for further strengthening and development of economic cooperation such as intergovernmental commission on economic, scientific and technical cooperation, a broad base of treaties and legislation and formats of economic cooperation," the source in the ministry added.
In conclusion, the source in the ministry noted that one of the most important steps in activation of politic, economic and cultural relation is a decision to open the embassy of Kazakhstan to Latvia, which was made by the president of Kazakhstan in July 2019. The embassy of Latvia to Kazakhstan has been operating since 2004.
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