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Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev wrapped up his visit to Brussels with a high-profile forum where business leaders and ministers from the largest Central Asian country met European businesses and signed commercial deals worth around \u20ac10 billion.<\/p>\n
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The visit came just over a year after the leaders of the EU and Central Asian countries agreed to begin a new era of cooperation in the historic summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. <\/p>\n
At that summit in April 2025, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she believed the partnership would lead to new opportunities in sectors such as energy, tourism, trade and transport, as she announced a \u20ac12 billion investment package for the region.<\/p>\n
“This will bring together investments from our European Union and member states. We call it a Team Europe approach. And it will launch a new pipeline of projects to Central Asia. This is truly the start of a new era in our ancient friendship,\u201d she said, flanked by European Council President Antonio Costa.<\/p>\n
Meeting Kazakhstan\u2019s president a year later in Brussels, von der Leyen and Costa reiterated that Kazakhstan’s strategic position as a gateway to Asia offers many opportunities.<\/p>\n
\u201cKazakhstan and Central Asia as a whole, is a natural global gateway,\u201d wrote von der Leyen on X. <\/p>\n
\u201cToday we will discuss how Global Gateway can bring our regions closer together. Turning a gateway into a pathway for jobs, opportunity and prosperity,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Much of the visit focused on interconnectivity, as Kazakhstan lies on the Middle Corridor, which connects Europe with China and the rest of East Asia. <\/p>\n
It builds and maintains 13 international road, rail, and maritime transit corridors and has facilitated growth in cargo volumes. Over the past six years, cargo volumes along this route have increased fivefold, from 800,000 to 4.1 million tonnes per year. <\/p>\n
The proclaimed goal of Astana is to increase its capacity to 10 million tonnes which would position the country as a key transport artery in global logistics. <\/p>\n
To maintain this momentum, Kazakhstan has invested over $35 billion in transport and logistics infrastructure over the past 15 years.<\/p>\n
Five agreements were signed in the Commission that aim to resolve some of the remaining obstacles to the growing movement of goods and people through the corridor, including the Horizontal Aviation Agreement. <\/p>\n
It will enhance connectivity between the EU and Kazakhstan by allowing any eligible EU airline to operate flights between Kazakhstan and any of the 17 EU member states that do not already have bilateral air service agreements with Kazakhstan. <\/p>\n
It replaces previous restrictions in those agreements that limited these routes to airlines owned or controlled by nationals of the respective member state or Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n
“This milestone reflects our shared commitment to strengthening cooperation, enhancing connectivity between our regions, and bringing our people and economies closer together,” European Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism Apostolos Tzitzikostas said. <\/p>\n
“By opening new opportunities for air services, the agreement will support growth, investment, and exchanges on both sides. I look forward to further deepening our aviation partnership and advancing our broader cooperation in the years ahead,” he added.<\/p>\n
Another agreement will partially ease the visa regime for Kazakh nationals visiting Europe. While they will still need a Schengen visa, it will be cheaper, the waiting time will be reduced, and the documents required to obtain one will be harmonised across member states.<\/p>\n
The main proof that what had been pledged in Samarkand a year ago is actually happening came from the Kazakhstan\u2013EU business forum, where Kazakhstan\u2019s business leaders and government ministers met with representatives of European industry and financial institutions.<\/p>\n
Opening the forum, Tokayev stressed the role that European businesses play in Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, the European Union is our largest trading and investment partner, accounting for nearly half of all the foreign direct investment attracted by Kazakhstan. Last year alone, our bilateral trade exceeded $45 billion,\u201d said Tokayev.<\/p>\n
Nearly 4,000 European companies already operate in Kazakhstan, noted Tokayev, adding that they are long-term trusted partners. <\/p>\n
Kazakhstan stands ready to support Europe in its industrial transformation with all its resources, which is especially important amid global uncertainties and supply chain instability, he added. <\/p>\n
Tokayev said that his country is ready to supply Europe with 21 out of 34 strategically important rare earths. On the other hand, he made it clear that he expected greater engagement from European companies and financial institutions in developing hi-tech projects in Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n
\u201cKazakstan and European Union are natural partners. We share a common interest in strengthening connectivity, supporting sustainable development, ensuring supply chain resilience and advancing technological progress. Now is the time to translate this shared vision into concrete projects, new investment, cutting edge technologies and quality jobs,\u201d said Tokayev.<\/p>\n
Representing the European Union, European Commissioner for Trade Maros \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d said the EU was aware of Kazakhstan’s importance as a partner. “We assure you that we know that your country is not just big but is also rich in history and culture. It also has a lot of resources, that you mentioned, that are crucial for the evelopment of the modern economy,” said \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d. <\/p>\n
As many as 30 commercial deals were signed, worth around \u20ac10 billion. Kazakstan\u2019s sovereign wealth fund “Samruk Kazyna” alone signed deals worth \u20ac8.4 billion. <\/p>\n
The largest of those is the certification agreement between Samruk\u2019s portfolio company, Kazakhstan\u2019s national carrier Air Astana and Airbus, with Air Astana set to buy 50 aircraft from the A320 family for \u20ac7.3 billion. <\/p>\n
Airbus will start delivering the planes in 2031, enhancing air transport connectivity along the Middle Corridor.<\/p>\n
Another service contract was signed with the French locomotive maker Alstom, which already has an assembly plant near Kazakhstan\u2019s capital Astana and historically supplies locomotives to Kazakhstan Railways. <\/p>\n
The new \u20ac967 million deal will secure continuous servicing of those locomotives, making traffic along the Middle Corridor more reliable.<\/p>\n
\u201cOther agreements were signed in different spheres: petrochemicals, transport and logistics. They are aimed at increasing our connectivity with other parts of the world and eventually increase throughput of the Middle Corridor,\u201d said Samruk Kazyna President of the Board of Directors Nurlan Zhakupov.<\/p>\n
Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Serik Zhumangarin said after the forum that Kazakhstan\u2019s delegation left satisfied because all the meetings were constructive, ended in concrete deals, and showed that Kazakhstan and the European Union are moving closer to each other.<\/p>\n
\u201cEuropean Union is our main trade partner, and it is not far down the road when our $45 billion trade will increase to $50 billion,” Zhumangarin told Euronews. <\/p>\n
“Kazakhstan is not only supplying raw materials in this trade. We are already talking about agricultural products and some complex products. We offer guarantees for all our deliveries and in today\u2019s world, stability reduces the cost of production. For us, the European Union is also a very reliable consumer,\u201d Zhumangarin added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can be satisfied with this, I would say historic, visit, because this forum was attended by the main locomotives of European economy who are either already present in Kazakhstan or they are getting ready to come and produce in our country, engage in ship building or offer standardisation and verification processes. All this is very important for us,\u201d Zhumangarin concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev wrapped up his visit to Brussels with a high-profile forum where business leaders and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[104],"tags":[211,210,73,12934,38,1161],"class_list":["post-115394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brussels","tag-belgium","tag-brussels","tag-european-union","tag-kazakhstan","tag-news","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116805163360211946","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}