By António Costa, President of the European Council
Ten years after the EU and Kazakhstan signed the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, our relationship has grown right into a broad and dynamic partnership. It spans political dialogue, security-, and financial cooperation, as properly multilateral diplomacy, connectivity, and innovation. In an period marked by geopolitical stress and world uncertainty, Kazakhstan stays a secure, constructive, and forward-looking companion for the European Union.
At the multilateral stage, we work carefully to defend the rules of the UN Charter, promote peaceable options, and strengthen a world system based mostly on guidelines and cooperation, in addition to the respect of nations sovereignty and territorial integrity. Kazakhstan’s diplomatic engagement – starting from battle prevention to its contributions in world fora – is according to the EU’s priorities of selling peace, dialogue, de-escalation, and stronger worldwide partnerships. This shared method has made our relationships extra strategic, and our cooperation extra related in quite a few areas in immediately’s geopolitical context, resembling cooperating on avoiding sanctions circumvention. Stopping the struggle and bringing complete, simply and lasting peace in Ukraine is a standard precedence for the EU and Kazakhstan.
Connectivity is one other space the place our partnership is delivering concrete outcomes. The Trans-Caspian International Transport Corridor has quickly gained strategic significance as a safe and sustainable bridge between Central Asia and Europe. With over €10 billion in European and worldwide commitments, the Middle Corridor is changing into quicker, extra environment friendly, and more and more digitalised. Strengthening this route is important not just for commerce, but additionally for constructing a extra resilient Eurasian connectivity structure that reduces vulnerabilities and diversifies Europe’s hyperlinks with the broader area.
Economic ties stay a powerful anchor. Over 4,000 European firms function in Kazakhstan, and cooperation via Horizon Europe, Erasmus+ and our increasing people-to-people exchanges displays our funding in long-term modernisation. The ongoing negotiations of visa facilitation will take this engagement even additional, supporting enterprise, innovation, and educational hyperlinks. Another vital and strategic dimension of our partnership is securing the essential uncooked supplies, vitality sources and applied sciences that underpin Kazakhstan’s and Europe’s inexperienced and digital transitions. Recent disruptions have proven the dangers of over-dependence on a small variety of world suppliers. The EU-Kazakhstan partnership is uniquely positioned to assist handle these challenges. Our partnership will help to speed up vitality diversification, scale investments into renewable vitality sources, assist technological growth and provide a big share of the uncooked supplies that the EU considers essential. Our Strategic Partnership on uncooked supplies, batteries, and renewable hydrogen – along with the joint 2025–2026 Roadmap – supplies a stable framework to show this potential into motion.
Our joint activity forward is to determine strategic and high-impact tasks, that can deepen our cooperation in processing and refining, and assist innovation in areas resembling geological surveying, battery recycling and inexperienced hydrogen. This will not be solely about supplies; it’s about constructing resilient, future-proof worth chains that strengthen Europe’s competitiveness whereas supporting Kazakhstan’s personal industrial modernisation.
Ten years after the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement’s signature, our path is evident. The EU and Kazakhstan are constructing a partnership that contributes to peace, enhances world cooperation, reinforces sustainable connectivity, and underpins Kazakhstan and Europe’s long-term resilience.
The subsequent decade have to be outlined by implementation: stronger worth chains, modernised infrastructure, deeper technological cooperation, and tangible joint tasks. Kazakhstan is a dependable companion for this journey. “Together, we are able to flip shared challenges into shared strengths and form a safer, sustainable and aggressive future for either side.
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