Kazakhstan bases the philosophy of its foreign policy on creating favourable external conditions for the country’s development, while still taking into account the weight of the geopolitical interests of the largest global and regional players such as the USA, the European Union, Russia and China. It’s not just by accident that we have identified the development of cooperation with all these centres of power as the highest priority in the new concept of foreign policy that Kazakhstan adopted in 2005.
We have therefore put great emphasis on the role that the European Union states play in the international arena and on the importance that Kazakhstan gives to developing relations with the EU, both today and in the long term. The enlargement process of the EU played quite a significant role, as it brought us closer in more than just a geographical sense. The close historical links that Kazakhstan has with the new members of the European Union is a further impulse to developing this cooperation.
Kazakhstan and the European Union now think of each other as stable and predictable partners in political, economic and other spheres. We can see proof that the Kazakhstan– European partnership has arrived at a strategic level in the wide range and intensive nature of the links and the fact that this high level of contacts is continually active; in addition there is the forward-looking character of the agreements that we have already achieved. This was corroborated by the visit of the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, to Brussels on December 3-6, 2006, when Mr Nazarbayev stressed that he firmly intended to develop a strategic partnership dialogue with Europe.
The adoption on June 22 last year of the European Union Strategy Paper for Central Asia will set the pattern to a significant extent for the evolution of cooperation between the two regions over the foreseeable future. We believe that the development and adoption of the Strategy Paper is important and timely for guaranteeing stability across the whole Eurasian land mass, and not just in the region which is “our neighbours’ neighbour” as far as the EU in concerned. It’s important that both regional and individual country-based approaches are taken into account when implementing the Strategy Paper.
The “Troika EU – Central Asia” dialogue will be an effective means of promoting cooperation; it’s already well-established and now reaches up as the high as ministers of foreign affairs. The meeting in Astana in March this year proved that both the Central Asian states and the EU are interested in a constructive partnership. Political dialogue with the EU will also allow us to coordinate our positions on international issues that we both find worrying. One example is that under the bilateral Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (1995) security and stability have increased in the area that it covers.
In connection with this, we are fully supporting the efforts of the European Union aimed at fighting against global threats, including taking part in the Border Management Initiative for Central Asia (BOMCA) and the Central Asia Drugs Action Plan (CADAP), and also in stabilising and rebuilding Afghanistan. There is no doubt that it’s the economic sphere that is today the most important aspect of our relationship. The Kazakhstan and EU economies mutually complement each other to a significant degree. At present the volume of bilateral trade is more than 20 billion euro. Today’s share of EU countries in Kazakhstan’s trade turnover is about 35 %, which puts it in first place among the country’s trading partners.
The EU countries have invested more than USD 35 billion in Kazakhstan’s economy, and this is more than half (53 percent) of the total amount of foreign investment. In many respects it’s our mutual interest in the oil and gas sector that dictates Kazakhstan- European economic cooperation. The stable political and economic situation in Kazakhstan has raised our importance as an alternative supplier of these resources to the EU. Therefore one of the main strategic tasks is to strengthen the energy dialogue and bring the other countries of Central Asia into it. We are talking primarily about guaranteeing secure energy supplies, both on a regional and a global scale.
The Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the energy field between Kazakhstan and the EU signed during President Nazarbayev’s visit to Brussels in December 2006 will also help in launching a strategic energy dialogue. We can also see a promising future in developing cooperation in the field of atomic energy and the uranium industry linked to it. As it is a very high-tech sector, the nuclear industry plays an important part in Kazakhstan’s fuel and energy industry. The country possesses more than 20 percent of the world’s supply of uranium. Kazakhstan is ready for the type of cooperation that would assist joint action in satisfying the needs of the EU countries’ atomic energy sectors for uranium, and would also provide assistance from the European Union in developing the country’s uranium industry.
There will be significant gains if all sides participate actively in developing multilateral energy cooperation between the European Union and the Caspian and Black Sea countries as part of the Baku Process. The Conclusions and Road Map that were adopted by the second Ministerial Conference (Astana, November 2006) as part of this process are intended to strengthen the links between the oil and gas producing countries in the regions around the two seas and the European Union. It is strategically important to develop a comprehensive infrastructure that will become part of an efficient transcontinental transport network and will guarantee the supply of hydrocarbons and other regional products to external markets. In this respect we can see a big potential in further developing cooperation with the EU under the INOGATE programme (Interstate Oil and Gas Transportation to Europe) and as part of the TRACECA project (Transport Corridor Europe– Caucasus–Asia).
Kazakhstan doesn’t intend to limit itself to energy and transport matters, even though they are extremely important in the context of economic cooperation with the EU. We are therefore very glad of the European Commission’s decision to include Kazakhstan in the framework programme for raising competitiveness and developing innovations, and in other measures that are designed to turn this intention into reality. We expect that the EU will soon make a decision on granting Kazakhstan the status of country with a market economy, and talks will be completed on the country’s entry into the World Trade Organisation. This will definitely be an important step in developing economic cooperation and will allow us to integrate Kazakhstan more actively and successfully into the global economy. An integral part of the European Union’s system of economic cooperation with countries that are setting up a market economy is the provision of technical assistance. Kazakhstan’s strategic role in the region will help the EU to implement actively relevant programmes.
Education is a key area of cooperation in the field of the humanities, as above all it assists the development of people- to-people contacts and the cultural enrichment of the different peoples. In this respect we are pleased that the European Union plans to provide support for the educational reforms that we are carrying out in Kazakhstan, especially in the development of professional training.
This cooperation will help us to ensure that our educational standards are comparable to the standards accepted in Europe and throughout the world. I must mention that Kazakhstan is already participating in a whole range of projects with European countries in the field of education, including the setting up of joint educational establishments and the implementation of joint educational programmes. Kazakhstan set up diplomatic relationship with the European Union in February 1993. Today Kazakhstan and the European Union think of each other as reliable strategic partners who are ready to develop long-term and comprehensive relations that are beneficial for the participants and for other countries and international associations. The success that has always accompanied Kazakhstan– European cooperation throughout its evolution has strengthened our conviction that our whole choice of foreign policy and foreign trade priorities is correct.