President Nazarbayev meets Jose Manuel Barroso

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev has had talks with chairman of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso, Tengrinews.kz reports. “The European Union has always supported Kazakhstan’s entry in the WTO and I am happy to once again certify here that our trade negotiators have finally agreed on the key elements of the bilateral conditions of Kazakhstan entry into the WTO and we are looking forward to signing this agreement in the nearest time,” Barroso told the journalists after the talks with Nazarbayev. Kazakhstan President stressed the importance of the soonest adoption of the new agreement between Kazakhstan and the EU on expansion of partnership and cooperation. He pointed out that there were some outstanding issues that were important for Kazakhstan in cooperation with Europe. “We talked and agreed to speed up the preparation of the new expanded agreement between the European Union and Kazakhstan. The old agreement is about to expire. We talked about simplifying the visa regimes for certain categories of our citizens, about the possibility of flights of our air companies to European countries and about the EU's support to Kazakhstan in its accession into the WTO. We stand on the same page in all these issues. We have received support and I am thankful to Mr. Barroso for that. We talked about the relations in the framework of the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space that should not hinder our trade with third countries, including the EU,” Nazarbayev said. Barroso reiterated that Kazakhstan was a strategic energy partner and a reliable oil supplier to the EU. “The expected production at Kashagan is a symbol of our mutually beneficial relations and investments in this sector,” he said. Chairman of the European Commission also stressed that part of the future agreement between Kazakhstan and the EU should be aimed at “establishment of contacts between common people” so the EU and Kazakhstan “can know each other better”. By Renat Tashkinbayev