Astana, August 3: Strengthening diplomatic relations with Kazakhstan, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj held a comprehensive discussion with her Kazakhstan counterpart Kairat Abdrakhmanov on deepening cooperation in areas like trade, energy and defence and security.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is on a three-nation tour to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan as part of India's efforts to boost strategic partnership with the resource-rich nations.
Raveesh Kumar, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson, tweeted, "Strategic partners since 2009! EAM @SushmaSwaraj met Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan Kairat Abdrakhmanov." The two leaders held a comprehensive discussion on deepening cooperation in trade and investment, defense, and security, energy, Information and Communications Technology, pharma, capacity building and culture.
Addressing a press statement on the developments taken in account of the bilateral meeting between the two countries, EAM Sushma Saraj said that under PM Narendra Modi India has initiated many projects like 'Digital India', 'Make in India' & 'Start-Up India'. These can be highly useful for digital developments in Kazakhstan. It can boost business relations between the two nations.
Both the countries have covered the full range of bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest. Taking stock of progress in our bilateral relations, India’s relations with Kazakhstan is built on a strong foundation of centuries-old historical and cultural ties. Both India and Kazakhstan have developed multifaceted cooperation in all areas of bilateral and multilateral relations and are strategic partners since 2009.
Further, on the discussion, EAM Sushma Swaraj highlighted discussing with Foreign Minister Abdrakhmanov about India’s interest to partner with Kazakhstan to explore markets for new products, diversifying from the trade in traditional products to inject fresh impetus to the trade between the two countries. There is immense potential to be tapped in sectors like agricultural products, food processing, pharmaceuticals, energy, and chemicals.
India has a keen interest in improving connectivity with this region. In December 2017, India acceded to TIR convention and in February 2018, India joined the Ashgabat Agreement. The International North-South Transport Corridor [INSTC] is gaining momentum and the member states are working together to popularize the corridor. Both the countries have growing cooperation in capacity building.
Kazakhstan’s professional and students have been attending courses on scholarships in India every year under ICCR and the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation [ITEC] programme in a wide range of disciplines.
To enhance people to people contact and to promote tourism, India has extended electronic visa system to the nationals of Kazakhstan since February 2018. Thanks to the pro-active leadership of H.E. President Nazarbayev, we already notice many positive changes facilitating travel by Indians to Kazakhstan.
Both Foreign Ministers expressed their interest to further strengthen their defence cooperation based on solid foundation that we have in place. The defence and security sector cooperation has intensified in the last two years. Kazakh Armed Forces Unit underwent training on peacekeeping operations in India and presently a mobile training team from the Indian Army is training Kazakh personnel in Almaty.
Sushma Swaraj was earlier warmly welcomed by Abdrakhmanov at his office ahead of the delegation-level talks. Today EAM Sushma Swaraj will call on the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Bakytzhan Sagintayev. Expressing her hopes on meeting the foreign counterpart in India soon, Sushma Swaraj thanked Kazakhstan on greeting her with a warm welcome.
