During his official visit to Germany, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev stated that Kazakhstan is firmly committed to comprehensive cooperation with Russia, Zakon.kz reports.
Responding to a question from a correspondent of "Kazinform" regarding allegations that Kazakhstan is moving away from cooperation with Russia and flirting with the West, President Tokayev emphasized that Kazakhstan is not "anti-Russia."
"We firmly adhere to the course of comprehensive cooperation with Russia, with which we share the longest border in the world. As I said at that press conference, we have longstanding traditions of cooperation in various fields, including trade and humanitarian relations," he emphasized.
In recent sessions of the UN General Assembly and other speeches regarding sanctions, Tokayev highlighted that sanction-driven confrontation is entirely counterproductive in terms of revitalizing international relations, which have suffered erosion due to the worsening global situation.
"I would like to emphasize that Kazakhstan does not possess goods subject to sanctions, and therefore, we do not trade in them. Kazakhstan also does not participate in so-called parallel imports to Russia," President Tokayev stated.
Regarding traditional trade, President Tokayev noted that "it is growing, and last year the volume of Kazakh-Russian trade reached $25 billion." He reminded that the "Innoprom" exhibition was recently held successfully in Nur-Sultan, which was visited by a representative Russian delegation led by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.
At the same time, Kazakhstan is obliged to take into account sanctions restrictions and maintains contacts on this matter with relevant international organizations, Tokayev added.
Furthermore, he reiterated his call for Russia and Ukraine to sit down for negotiations.
"Taking this opportunity, I would like to draw the attention of diplomats to my appeal to find a mutually acceptable basis for negotiations on peace between Russia and Ukraine. This is critically important because peace has approached a dangerous brink of fatal confrontation with disastrous consequences for the majority of humanity," Tokayev emphasized.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's official visit to Germany began on September 28, 2023. In addition, he will participate in a meeting in the C5+1 format with the presidents of Central Asian countries and German President Steinmeier.
Presidents of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan are already in Berlin.
CentralasianLIGHT.org
September 29, 2023