Kazakhstan expanding co-op with EU in number of new areas

Kazakhstan is expanding cooperation with the European Union in a number of new directions, said Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Roman Vasilenko, Trend reports with reference to the Kazakh media.

He noted that Kazakhstan remains the only country in the region that has signed and ratified the enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with the EU and its member states, and also added that the country is not limited to the 29 areas of interaction defined by this agreement.

At the same time, the deputy minister stressed that last year Kazakhstan and the EU launched cooperation in such areas as rare earth metals, "green" hydrogen, batteries, development of transport and logistics potential, as well as diversification of supply chains of goods.

According to him, at the moment more than 3,000 companies with the participation of European capital are successfully operating in various sectors of the economy, including such global giants as Shell, Eni, Total, Amazonen-Werke, Air Liquide, Alstom and Carlsberg.

?trafl?"Due to the geopolitical situation in the region, many European companies express significant interest in relocating to Kazakhstan. There are already concrete agreements with large companies in the UK, Lithuania, Denmark, the Czech Republic either on opening a new production facility in Kazakhstan, or on moving their regional offices," Vasilenko added.