Kazakhstan, EU ink partnership agreement
By Laman Sadigova
Kazakhstan and the European Union have signed an agreement on expanding partnership and cooperation in Astana.
The document was undersigned by Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan Yerlan Idrisov and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, who is on a visit to Astana to attend a meeting of foreign ministers in the format of "European Union - Central Asia".
Kazakhstan became the first country in the Central Asia that signed a new comprehensive document with the European Union.
This agreement opens new opportunities for cooperation between Kazakhstan and the EU in trade, economic and investment spheres.
An important area of cooperation under the new agreement is a further simplification of mutual trips of citizens.
Kazakhstan and the EU express their willingness to move to a conceptually new level of relations and intensify mutually advantageous partnership in 29 areas covered by the agreement. Such spheres as economics and finance, transport, energy, environment, education and research, as well as data protection, migration, the rule of law and fighting corruption are surely among the areas of cooperation.
Today, the EU is the largest trade partner of Kazakhstan. The trade turnover with the EU exceeded $53 billion as of 2014, or 53.2 percent of Kazakhstan’s total trade turnover.
This figure reached $24.5 billion as of January - September 2015, or 51.8 percent of the country’s total foreign trade.
---
Follow Laman Sadigova on Twitter: @s_laman93
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz