Kazakhstan: we seek to strengthen cooperation between Central Asian countries

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev confirmed today, Thursday, his country’s striving to strengthen the aspects of joint cooperation between the Central Asian countries, in his speech at the fifth consultative summit of the heads of Central Asian states currently held in Tajikistan

“I am confident that today’s summit will bring really great results and will set the further dynamics of multifaceted cooperation, and it is encouraging that the results of the consultative meetings have become actionable and the meetings have become an effective platform with great prospects,”Kazakh Kazinform news agency quoted Tokayev as saying.

According to him, mutually beneficial trade and economic cooperation is steadily expanding, contacts between companies have been intensified; the number of joint enterprises is increasing, especially since large regional projects lead not only to mutual benefit, but also form the entire economy of Central Asia, and this is facilitated by active and reliable political dialogue, which makes it possible to deal with any issues in a constructive manner.

Over the past five years, the volume of bilateral trade has increased by more than 80% to 10.6 billion dollars, according to Tokayev.

On the other hand, Tokayev said that in the rapidly changing world order, improving the existing mechanisms of interaction between our countries on security issues is gaining great importance. 
“I propose to hold a dialogue on security and cooperation in Central Asia in Kazakhstan in 2024 at the level of Secretaries of the security councils, to develop certain preventive measures,”he said.