AKIPRESS.COM - Brussels hosted the 15th Meeting of the Berlin Eurasian Club with the participation of the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Alexei Volkov on September 30, reports the Foreign Ministry of Kazakhstan in a release.

The meeting was attended by the Head of Division for Central Asia of the European External Action Service Toivo Klaar, member of the German Bundestag Karin Strenz, MEP Iveta Grigule as well as leading political scientists and experts from Kazakhstan, Germany and EU.

During the meeting, Volkov informed about the initiatives of the President Nursultan |Nazarbayev announced at the UN General Assembly, the strategic priorities of Kazakhstan’s foreign policy, stating the importance of developing joint Kazakhstan-EU approaches in the context of current security challenges of Europe and the Central Asian region. The Kazakh diplomat drew attention to our country’s proposals and recommendations regarding the content of the new EU Strategy for Central Asia. In turn, T. Klaar informed about the measures to coordinate joint efforts with the countries of the region in order to achieve long-term stability and effective development of cooperation.

There was general agreement among the participants of the meeting in Brussels that their active engagement in regional cooperation processes with regard to the national needs in the framework of more effective economic integration is a formula for successful development of all Central Asian countries.

The Kazakh delegation was comprised of the representatives of Kazakhstan’s religious confessions as well as members of the diplomatic missions of the Republic of Kazakhstan to Germany and Belgium.

In addition, Volkov met with the Director for Russia, Eastern Partnership, Central Asia, Regional Cooperation and OSCE of the European External Action ServiceGunnar Wiegand. During the negotiations topical issues of the bilateral agenda were discussed. In particular, the perspectives of signing a new Agreement on extensive partnership and cooperation between the Republic of Kazakhstan and EU, simplification of visa procedures for the citizens of Kazakhstan, expansion of trade and economic cooperation. Moreover, the sides exchanged their opinions on collaboration in the Central Asian region and essential problems of the international agenda.

The Berlin Eurasian Club (BEC) was established in 2012 in the light of the implementation of the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev’s idea about eurasianism and state program “Road to Europe” as a dialogue platform to discuss a wide spectrum of social and political issues between the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Federal Republic of Germany, as well as EU.