AKIPRESS.COM - A NATO delegation visited Kazakhstan from 6 to 10 October to take part in a series of public diplomacy events focusing on the 20th anniversary of cooperation with Kazakhstan within the Alliance’s Partnership for Peace (PfP) program, NATO said in a press release.

Led by the NATO Liaison Officer in Central Asia, Alexander Vinnikov, the delegation also met with senior representatives from Kazakhstan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defence, Committee on Emergency Situations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Education and Science, and Committee on Transport and Communications of the Ministry of Investment and Development.

They reviewed ongoing and planned bilateral cooperation under Kazakhstan's Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) with NATO and discussed regional security issues including Afghanistan, Ukraine and the Middle East.

The NATO officials also met with the Delegation of the European Union to Kazakhstan and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Centre in Astana. They then briefed Allied embassies at an event organized by the Latvian Embassy, the NATO Contact Point Embassy in Kazakhstan.

At the Nazarbayev and the Gumilyov Eurasian National universities in Astana, delegates delivered lectures explaining NATO's engagement with partners in the Central Asian region and briefed audiences on the key outcomes of the recent NATO Wales Summit, with particular focus on NATO's partnership policy and Afghanistan.

In Almaty, the NATO delegation opened the second in a series of NATO-supported events throughout Central Asia marking the 20th anniversary of the PfP programme in Kazakhstan. Experts from four Central Asian countries, as well as other international experts, diplomats and military officers discussed lessons learned from two decades of PfP cooperation between NATO and Central Asia and ways to enhance the relationship. They also reviewed the way ahead for the Alliance following the decisions made at the Wales Summit. The event was organized by the Information and Resource Centre on NATO at the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University with the support of NATO's Public Diplomacy Division and the office of the NATO Liaison Officer in Central Asia.

The NATO representatives also gave a lecture on NATO's engagement with Kazakhstan and Central Asia at KIMEP University in Almaty. Students then debated topical issues of regional security with the delegation.

Meetings with the leadership of Kazakhstan's PfP Training Centre (KAZCENT) in Almaty concluded the NATO visit.