{"id":457789,"date":"2026-06-23T18:41:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T16:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/06\/23\/ue-e-kazakistan-rafforzano-la-partnership-strategica-von-der-leyen-paese-e-porta-daccesso-globale\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T19:04:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T17:04:19","slug":"eu-and-kazakhstan-strengthen-their-strategic-partnership-von-der-leyen-the-country-is-a-gateway-to-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/06\/23\/eu-and-kazakhstan-strengthen-their-strategic-partnership-von-der-leyen-the-country-is-a-gateway-to-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"EU and Kazakhstan strengthen their strategic partnership; von der Leyen: “The country is a gateway to the world”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 \u201cKazakhstan is a gateway to the world, as is Central Asia<\/strong><\/span>,\u201d and <\/strong><\/span>\u201cPresident Tokayev\u2019s visit today is a testament to the growing partnership between the European Union and Kazakhstan<\/strong><\/span>.\u201d With these words, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong>, today (23 June) marked the meeting\u2014held alongside the President of the European Council, Ant\u00f3nio Costa\u2014with the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev<\/strong>, in Brussels. At the meeting, the European Union and Kazakhstan signed a joint strategic declaration<\/a> and several agreements, including on connectivity and critical raw materials. The aim is to strengthen \u201c<\/span>the investment climate and to step up cooperation in strategic sectors, including those covered by the EU\u2019s Global Gateway strategy for Central Asia, in particular critical raw materials, energy, transport, digitalisation, and emerging technologies.\u201d For the President, this is about \u201cturning this gateway into a pathway for job creation, trade opportunities, and shared prosperity<\/strong>.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Kazakh president\u2019s visit took place at \u201ca time of growing geopolitical importance for connectivity, energy security, and the resilience of supply chains,\u201d and the event should be seen in the context of the EU\u2019s attempts to become a privileged economic partner for the Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan). The aim is clear: to attempt to contain the economic, and not only, influence of <\/span>Russia <\/a>in<\/span> these regions. <\/span><\/p>\n

Connections and airlines<\/h4>\n

\n

A horizontal aviation agreement was signed today to improve air links between the EU and Kazakhstan and to offer new commercial opportunities for European airlines. Under the agreement, \u201call EU airlines will be able to operate flights between Kazakhstan and any of the 17 Member States that have concluded an agreement\u201d with Kazakhstan. This contrasts with the current situation, \u201cin which the beneficiaries are generally airlines owned and controlled by the Member States in question or by their nationals\u201d.<\/p>\n

Trade via the Trans-Caspian Corridor<\/h4>\n

\n

Also, as part of the Global Gateway initiative, a framework agreement for a \u20ac150 million loan was signed between the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the National Road Company of Kazakhstan. Thanks to an “EU-backed guarantee,” this operation will finance the upgrading of Kazakh roads along the Trans-Caspian transport corridor, a key hub of the European initiative which aims to create “new direct east-west trade routes and reduce dependence on neighbouring countries.”<\/p>\n

Internationally accredited chemical and analytical laboratory for critical raw materials<\/h4>\n

\n

The EIB and the Kazakh government have also signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a study on the \u201cfeasibility of building an internationally accredited chemical-analytical laboratory for critical raw materials in Astana,\u201d which is also a Global Gateway project.<\/p>\n

Visa Facilitation Agreement and Readmission Agreement<\/h4>\n

\n

Against this backdrop, negotiations between the European Commission and Kazakhstan on the two agreements have concluded “successfully,” paving the way for their internal adoption procedures. Once adopted, the Visa Facilitation Agreement will simplify the procedure for Kazakh citizens to apply for a short-stay EU visa. The Readmission Agreement, on the other hand, will facilitate the application of EU migration rules.<\/p>\n

EU\u2013Kazakhstan Round Table<\/h4>\n

\n

On the sidelines of the leaders\u2019 meeting, the European Commissioner for Trade, Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d<\/strong>, and President Tokayev chaired a round-table discussion with several European companies keen to invest in Kazakhstan. In this context, Astana signed an agreement to purchase up to 50 Airbus aircraft<\/a> worth \u20ac7.145 billion. <\/span><\/p>\n

Relations between the EU and Kazakhstan are based on the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, which has been in force since 2020. The European Union is Kazakhstan\u2019s leading trade and investment partner, accounting for a third of the country\u2019s foreign trade. Today\u2019s meeting followed the first EU\u2013Central Asia summit, held in Samarkand in 2025. On that occasion, the European Union and the five Central Asian republics established a strategic partnership, and the Berlaymont announced a \u20ac12 billion investment package called “Global Gateway” in the sectors of transport, digital connectivity, water resources, energy, climate, and critical raw materials. \u201cFollowing the success of our first EU-Central Asia summit last year, our Global Gateway strategy will continue to bring our regions closer together<\/strong>,\u201d reiterated the head of the Berlaymont Building.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The two sides have signed a joint strategic declaration to strengthen \u201cthe investment climate and step up cooperation in strategic sectors, in particular critical raw materials, energy, transport, digitalisation, and emerging technologies\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7908,"featured_media":457771,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25705,25707],"tags":[27175,25871,27680,26847,30000,27335,34577,25803,26099,33394,25921],"class_list":["post-457789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-world-politics","tag-airbus-en","tag-armenia-and","tag-connectivity-en","tag-council-en","tag-kassym-jomart-tokayev","tag-russia-in-2","tag-transport-en","tag-ue","tag-von-der-leyen-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457789"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":457790,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457789\/revisions\/457790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}