ASTANA, Kazakhstan, February 15. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Roman Vasilenko has held a meeting with the Ambassador of the EU to Kazakhstan Kestutis Jankauskas, Trend reports.
During the meeting, an exchange of views took place on current issues on the bilateral and regional agenda, as well as priority areas of interaction for the near, medium, and long term.
The parties outlined further steps to fully implement the potential of the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between Kazakhstan and the EU (EPCA). In this context, the parties discussed plans to hold annual meetings of the dialogue platforms provided for by the EPCA.
Particular attention was paid to deepening cooperation in the fields of transport and logistics, infrastructure and production of rare earth metals, energy, ecology, and security.
Vasilenko pointed out the successful holding of the Central Asia-EU Investor Forum on transport connectivity in Brussels on January 29–30. "Active work is underway to implement the Joint Roadmap to intensify interaction between Central Asia and the EU," he said.
In turn, Kestutis Jankauskas noted with satisfaction the dynamically developing dialogue at all levels of interaction.
In addition, the parties agreed to continue close interaction aimed at further deepening strategic cooperation.
Meanwhile, Kazakhstan's trade turnover with European countries amounted to $40.2 billion from January through November 2023. The volume of trade turnover increased by 1.46 percent compared to the same period in 2022 ($39.6 billion).
At the same time, in the structure of trade turnover, exports to European countries for the above period amounted to $29.6 billion, which is 8.5 percent less than from January through November 2022 ($32.3 billion).
In addition, imports from European countries from January through November 2023 increased by 45.8 percent and amounted to $10.5 billion. For the 11 months of 2022, imports amounted to $7.2 billion.