NEWS

Kazakhstan, Switzerland Focus on Fully Using the Potential for Stronger Ties

Kazakhstan and Switzerland aim to push bilateral cooperation to a qualitatively new level and believe they do have a great untapped potential.

This was a key message at the talks between Secretary of State - Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kanat Saudabayev and the leadership of the Swiss Confederation on March 4 in Bern during the second day of his visit to that country.

The prospects for strengthening inter-parliamentary ties between the two states were discussed at the meeting with Pascale Bruderer Wyss, President of the National Council (lower chamber) of the Parliament of Switzerland.

She wished Kazakhstan success as it pursues its OSCE chairmanship agenda, noting the importance of this mission for our common Organization. Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister invited her to take part in “The Eurasian dimension of the OSCE” Trans-Asian Parliamentary Forum to be held in Almaty on May 14-16 this year with the participation of European and Asian parliamentarians.

The agenda for negotiations of Saudabayev and his Swiss counterpart, Federal Councilor for Foreign Affairs Micheline Calmy-Rey was both extensive and concrete.

Calmy-Rey noted the dynamic development of bilateral cooperation and stated Kazakhstan is an important partner for Switzerland which is well demonstrated by the fact of the opening of the Swiss embassy in Astana last year.

The Swiss Foreign Minister underscored the work in Kazakhstan of nearly 40 companies from Switzerland and stressed the significant contribution to strengthening the relations of the Intergovernmental Commission on trade and economic cooperation.

In particular, during the sixth meeting of the commission held in Zurich in December 2009, an additional protocol to the Convention between the two countries for the avoidance of double taxation was initialed. Saudabayev and Calmy-Rey agreed to continue close cooperation in order to expedite the signing of this important document.

Calmy-Rey further noted a decline in turnover in 2009 due to the crisis, but expressed her confidence it will grow this year noting Kazakhstan’s interest in export diversification to the Alpine state. As noted by Saudabayev, the emphasis by President Nursultan Nazarbayev given to the economy’s diversification and the development of high-tech industries announced in his address to the people of Kazakhstan and represented in the recent Strategic development plan till 2020, opens a great potential for cooperation with Switzerland, a distinguished producer of quality medicines and medical equipment and other products of high technology.

Saudabayev and Calmy-Rey also discussed the prospects of further expansion of cultural and humanitarian cooperation, in particular the issues on conducting the Days of Culture of Kazakhstan in Switzerland and, conversely, the Days of Swiss culture in Kazakhstan, as well as increasing the number of Bolashak students studying at Swiss universities.

The two sides exchanged views on the current state and prospects of global monetary and financial systems’ development and agreed on the need of taking into account the interests of all the states, including medium sized states, in determining the future configuration of this system.

Underscoring the multi-ethnic character of the population of both countries, Saudabayev and Calmy-Rey noted the importance and great prospects proposed for cooperation in the sphere of promoting intercultural dialogue. In this context, Saudabayev stressed Kazakhstan’s commitment to promoting tolerance of non-discrimination during its Chairmanship in the OSCE and expressed confidence in wide-ranging cooperation.

The Foreign Ministers discussed the cooperation in general in the context of Kazakhstan’s OSCE Chairmanship and Swiss chairmanship in the Council of Europe. (More detailed and extended discussion on this issue are planned at the meeting of leadership of the OSCE and the Council of Europe in Geneva on March 5).

Saudabayev and Calmy-Rey signed two documents, the Agreement on readmission of persons residing without authorization and the Agreement on a mutual lifting of the visa requirement for holders of diplomatic passports.

The culmination of Saudabayev’s visit to Bern was his talks with Federal President, Federal Minister of Economic Affairs of Switzerland Doris Leuthard. The head of the Swiss state said the volume of trade-economic cooperation between the two countries still does not reflect the potential available between the states, and expressed the hope that potential will be better used. Congratulating Kazakhstan on the successful start of its OSCE Chairmanship, Leuthard noted Bern believes an OSCE Summit proposed by President Nursultan Nazarbayev makes sense, and for it to take place there should be progress in the implementation of the Corfu process.

Date of issue: 2010-03-04