Kazakhstan to open embassies in Ethiopia and RSA

Kazakhstan is planning to open its embassies in Ethiopia and the Republic of South Africa, Tengrinews reports referring to the Kazakhstan Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Yerlan Idrissov. "Kazakhstan is looking into new regions to geographically expand its diplomacy. We intend to consolidate the relationships with the African continent that has vast economic potential. We are planning to open Kazakhstan embassies in RSA this year and in Ethiopia next year," the Minister of Foreign Affairs said during a meeting in the Senate earlier this week. He pointed out that Ethiopia is a political capital of Africa and is home to the African Union's headquarters. "We are going to strengthen cooperation with African countries through our presence in Ethiopia," he said. Besides RSA, Foreign Affairs Ministry of Kazakhstan is setting up relationships with Latin America countries. The embassy of Kazakhstan was recently opened in Brazil, and it is planned to open our embassy in Mexico next year. "I don't think that there is a need to be overly concerned about security of our diplomatic mission there," the Foreign Minister said answering a question on whether the Foreign Ministry was going to take extra measures to ensure security of the Kazakhstan diplomatic representatives in South Africa, considering the high crime rate in the country. "Let's establish the embassy first. Any diplomatic mission in any country applies security measures, and in South Africa we will have a security system to make sure that our diplomats and their families can live there safely. But this doesn't mean that RSA has some kind of excessively dangerous conditions, it is just a regular requirement. Any diplomatic mission is a restricted area, that is why it has high security requirements," he explained. Kazakhstan's diplomats, who came to RSA earlier this months to discuss the first visit of Nursultan Nazarbayev to the country, were robbed on their way from the airport. Later the Kazakhstan Foreign Minister said that it wasn't an actual robbery. According to Idrissov, delegation from Kazakhstan was fooled by an imposter. Three foreign journalists were robbed in 2010 in South Africa; they came to the country to publicize the World Football Cup. The robbers took their money, laptops, passports, cameras, mobile phones and accreditation for the World Championship. Other victims of the robbery were four journalists from China that time. By Renat Tashkinbayev