BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 20. The EU is interested in strengthening bilateral cooperation with Kazakhstan, Peter Stano, the European Commission’s Lead Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, told Trend.
"This year, the EU and Kazakhstan are celebrating the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations. Kazakhstan is the first country in the region to conclude an Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (EPCA) with the EU. The EU is Kazakhstan's first overall trading partner and foreign direct investment provider," he said.
According to Stano, the EPCA has strengthened cooperation in twenty-nine key policy areas, including human rights, trade and customs, environment and climate change, energy and the green economy, transport, education, research, and development.
As he noted, the potential for deeper and wider cooperation is very promising.
"We are keen to strengthen bilateral cooperation in areas such as trade and investment, green transition, sustainable connectivity, digitalization, energy, renewable hydrogen, raw materials, and people-to-people contacts. And since all economic sectors require a skilled and well-educated workforce, we must also focus on our training and exchange programs. We welcome the participation of university students and staff in Erasmus+, and we encourage even more participation of researchers in Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions and research entities in the Horizon Europe Framework program," Peter Stano said.
Meanwhile, trade turnover between the EU countries and Kazakhstan amounted to 31.7 billion euros from January through September 2023. This figure exceeds by 10.8 percent the figures for the same period in 2022 (28.6 billion euros).
In addition, Kazakhstan’s exports to the EU reached 22.5 billion euros, which is 2 percent more than in the same period in 2022 (22 billion euros).
Imports for the same period amounted to 9.17 billion euros, which exceeds the figure for the first nine months of 2022 (about 6.53 billion euros) by 40 percent.