Baku, Azerbaijan, August 30
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
Slovakia looks to concentrate activities in Kazakhstan in the area of environmental protection and education, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia told Trend.
"Slovakia wishes to maintain the achieved level of dialogue with Kazakhstan and looks for opportunities for further cooperation in international organizations such as the UN and the OSCE," the source in the ministry said.
According to the source in the ministry, both countries work hard on developing all spheres of cooperation and, naturally, there is always room for further improvement.
“One important point we thoroughly share – both countries strongly believe in multilateralism, as evidenced by foreign policy initiatives of both Slovakia and Kazakhstan,” the source said.
Kazakhstan is one of the key partners of Slovakia in Central Asia, the source noted.
“We assess our bilateral cooperation positively, and we commemorated the 25th anniversary of our diplomatic relations in 2018. Especially in recent times, our political dialogue has developed dynamically, to which a number of high-level visits and meetings have contributed. In the last two years, political dialogue at the level of state secretaries of our ministries of foreign affairs has been also intensified. Hence we appreciate that our Kazakh partners during the visit informed us about their plan to open Embassy in Bratislava,” the source stated.
The source noted that Slovakia supported several foreign policy activities of Kazakhstan, such as Chairmanship of the OSCE in 2010, the OSCE Summit in Nur-Sultan in 2010, holding EXPO-2017, non-permanent membership of Kazakhstan in the United Nations Security Council in 2017-2018.
“Vice-versa Kazakhstan has supported the Slovak initiatives, such as current Chairmanship in the OSCE, Foreign Minister Lajcak´s Presidency of the 72nd United Nations General Assembly. Slovakia also became one of the first European countries that ratified the agreement on extended partnership and cooperation between Kazakhstan and the EU,” the source in the ministry highlighted.
As stated by the source, Slovakia also participated in preparation and supported the adoption of the new EU strategy for Central Asia, and recognizes the strategic role Kazakhstan and Central Asian region play in in global efforts to promote the Euro-Asian connectivity.
“We plan to concentrate our activities in Kazakhstan also on the area of environmental protection and education, where the aim is to increase the number of Kazakh students at Slovak schools in the medium term,” the source concluded.
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