NUR-SULTAN, 24 May 2019 – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted the Fifth Meeting of the Joint Strategic Planning Group chaired by the Foreign Ministers of Kazakhstan and Turkey, Beibut Atamkulov and Mevlut Cavusoglu, who arrived in Kazakhstan with a visit.
During the meeting, the Foreign Ministers of the two countries discussed issues of political, trade and economic, cultural and humanitarian cooperation, as well as cooperation within the framework of Astana process to resolve the Syrian crisis and the progress of preparations for the anniversary summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic-speaking States.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan noted that Turkey is an important, strategic and reliable partner of Kazakhstan on the Eurasian continent, which is due to the historical and cultural community of the two fraternal peoples, as well as the increased role of Nur-Sultan and Ankara in the processes of regional and global politics, authority in the Muslim and Turkic world.
Mr. Cavusoglu emphasized the special role of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Elbasy Nursultan Nazarbayev in creating the architecture of the existing strategic relations between two countries. Since 1991, N. Nazarbayev has visited Turkey 24 times with working and official visits. In the same period, Presidents of Turkey were accepted in the Kazakh capital 15 times and the Prime-Ministers - 6 times.
This year, Kazakhstan and Turkey celebrate the 10th anniversary of the strategic partnership status. During this period, three high-level strategic cooperation council meetings were held under the chairmanship of the Heads of State.
In this regard, the parties highly appreciated the activities of the high-level Strategic Cooperation Council, noting that it gives a new impetus to the development and deepening of relations between the two fraternal countries, determines the prospects for further cooperation in the framework of bilateral cooperation, as well as on topical issues on the international agenda.
The priority topic of the talks was trade and economic cooperation. Turkey is a reliable economic partner of Kazakhstan and there is great potential for further cooperation within the framework of the New Synergy Economic Program. The heads of state set the goal of bringing the mutual trade turnover up to $5 billion. The goal is to increase trade turnover to $5 billion. At the same time, complacency was expressed with the fact that in the first quarter of this year more than 50 percent growth of this indicator was achieved.
Turkey is among the top 10 countries - the main trade partners of Kazakhstan. With the participation of Turkish investors, such significant projects as the production of pharmaceuticals, chrome concentrate, electronic-optical devices, soft drinks and confectionery have been implemented.
It was noted that Kazakhstan is interested in increasing the inflow of Turkish investments for joint production of products with high added value, aimed at exports to third countries in such industries as chemistry and petrochemistry, mechanical engineering, construction materials, metallurgy, textile industry.
A successful example of cooperation in the military-industrial sphere is the joint venture Kazakhstan ASELSAN Engineering. Within the framework of participation of the Kazakhstani delegation in the international defense exhibition "IDEF" in Turkey, an agreement was reached on export of the products of this enterprise to the Turkish market.
An essential aspect of effective economic cooperation is the development of transport infrastructure. In this regard, the parties discussed the prospects of the Trans-Caspian route, as well as the development of logistics hub on the basis of the sea ports of Aktau and Kuryk, which can become an important element of the actively developing Eurasian transport infrastructure.
In the course of the negotiations in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan various aspects of interaction in Central Asia were also discussed, including the strengthening of a confidential dialogue between the countries of the region, the search for common principles of interaction in all spheres.
The parties considered the issues of cooperation within the framework of international organizations and associations, various UN structures.
A special point of the talks was the issue of further deepening of cultural and humanitarian relations between Kazakhstan and Turkey. Taking into account various aspects, the importance of the Kazakh-Turkish cooperation in the development of Turkestan was emphasized. Satisfaction was expressed with the fact that Turkish companies were involved in the construction of an international airport in this city and a number of other significant facilities.
Kazakhstan is interested in studying the advanced experience of Turkey in the tourism sphere. In this regard, Turkish investors are invited to actively participate in the Kazakhstani projects on development of tourism infrastructure of the Republic of Kazakhstan. It was also noted the need to popularize the historical, cultural and spiritual center of the Turkic world of Turkestan.
Taking into account the general cultural-historical and ethnic roots of the Kazakh and Turkish people, the parties expressed interest in maintaining and deepening the friendly and warm atmosphere of bilateral relations in the field of cultural and humanitarian cooperation.