Ashraf Siddiqui
Doha
Qatar occupies the most important place in Kazakhstan’s foreign policy, as Qatar was one of the first countries in the world to recognise the country’s independence and establish diplomatic relations with it, Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Qatar HE Arman Issagaliyev has said.
“For all these years, Doha has been providing broad support to all our initiatives and proposals in the political, trade, economic, investment, cultural and humanitarian areas,” he said.
The envoy was speaking at a gala dinner to celebrate his country’s National Day on Tuesday. Present on the occasion were Minister of State and President of Qatar National Library HE Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kawari; Minister of Municipality HE Dr Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Subaie; Director of Protocol Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs HE ambassador Ibrahim Yousif Abdullah Fakhro; Ambassador of Eritrea and Head of Diplomatic Corps Qatar HE Ali bin Ahmed; ambassadors; guests and members of the Kazakhstan community in Qatar.
The Kazakh ambassador thanked the Amir His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani for his participation in the 6th CICA Summit held in Astana on October 13 during which a joint statement was adopted on the transformation of the CICA into a full-fledged international organisation.
He also thanked the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, other ministries and departments and national and private companies in Qatar for their invaluable assistance and support, “without which it would be impossible to achieve such great success”.
The Kazakh envoy expressed satisfaction on the high level of cooperation between the two countries.He said, “The year 2022 was marked by an unprecedented expansion of bilateral cooperation, which was largely facilitated by the strong brotherly relations between the Amir His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and President Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev.”
The growth in bilateral relations, he noted, could be seen from the intensive contacts between the leaderships of both the countries as both the leaders have met five times during this year, while Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs HE Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdurahman Al Thani has visited Astana three times over the past 15 months, in addition to the visits by Kazakhstan’s Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Defence, Economy, Agriculture and Ecology.
The envoy said that during the recent visit by HH the Amir to Kazakhstan on October 12 and 13, both heads of state agreed to bring bilateral relations to the level of strategic partnership in the coming years and President Tokayev presented HH the Amir the highest state award of Kazakhstan ‘Order of Altyn Kyran’ (Golden Eagle).
Ambassador Arman said that on the sidelines of HH Amir’s visit, 12 bilateral documents were signed at the state, inter-governmental and inter-departmental levels in the field of trade, investment, agriculture, mining, education, healthcare, culture, sports, tourism, among others.
He added: “The Kazakh-Qatari Investment Forum was attended by a large number of businessmen from both countries. Thirteen bilateral investment agreements amounting to more than $625 million were signed on the sidelines of the Investment Forum.
“Qatar is a very important partner for us in the Middle East as Doha was one of the first to support our socio-economic and political reforms. Moreover, Kazakhstan is successfully developing strategic partnership with all neighbouring countries, including Russia, China, Central Asian States, the Caucasus, CIS as a whole, Middle East region, as well as the United States of America, the countries of the European Union and the entire Asian continent as such with whole the world.”Talking about the celebrations, the ambassador said this is one of the most important dates in the modern history of Kazakhstan.
He said, “On this day in 1990, the Declaration on the State Sovereignty of our Country was adopted. In fact, it was the first step on the path to independence. It was this year that Kazakhstan President Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev proposed to revive the celebration of the Republic Day as the National Day of the country in June of this year.
“Over the past years, we have come a long way. Having overcome difficult trials, our people have realised their centuries-old dream of independence by building a strong and stable state. Kazakhstan’s GDP has exceeded $190 billion and our country has attracted more than $380 billion of foreign direct investment.”
The ambassador said his country’s major achievements also include building relations with all countries of the world, stressing that Kazakhstan has no enemies and detractors, which is the most important achievement.
