Astana will discuss simplification of visa regime with Schengen countries

Nazarbayev and Vice-President of the European Commission will discuss simplification of the visa regime with Schengen-zone countries, Tengrinews.kz reports citing an official representative of Kazakhstan Central Communications Service Altay Abibullayev. “Baroness Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Vice-President of the Commission will render her first visit to Kazakhstan on November 29-30 to meet with Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Foreign Minister Yerlan Idrissov,” Abibullayev said. He noted that a range of issues of bilateral and multilateral cooperation, as well as of international and regional agenda will be discussed during the visit. “In particular, they are going to discuss several priority issues of cooperation between Kazakhstan and the European Union, including enhancement of the mechanism of the political dialog in development of trade and economic relations and simplification of the visa regime between Kazakhstan and the Schengen zone, and activation of interaction in foreign security,” Abibullayev stated. The European Union is a key trade and economic partner of Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan state-run program The Path to Europe was successfully implemented in 2011. Major parameters of a new agreement on advanced partnership between Kazakhstan and the European Union are currently being reviewed. 50 percent of Kazakhstan’s foreign trade turnover falls on the European Union. The commodities turnover between the countries made $50 billion in 2011 and over $40 billion in the first 9 months of 2012. By Aidana Ussupova