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EU, Central Asia ministerial meeting held to resolve regional problems

Xinhua, December 22, 2015 Adjust font size:

The 11th EU-Central Asia Ministerial Meeting was held Monday in Kazakh capital, Astana, to discuss a wide range of regional and international issues of mutual interest.

The EU delegation was led by High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/vice-President of the European Commission Federica Mogherini.

The Kazakh delegation was headed by Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov. The Foreign Ministers Abdulaziz Kamilov and Erlan Abdyldayev represented Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan respectively. Countries of Tajikistan and Turkmenistan were represented by deputy foreign ministers.

During the plenary meeting, the Foreign Ministers of the EU and Central Asia exchanged views on updating of the EU Strategy for Central Asia, cooperation between the EU and Central Asia in border management, education, economy, investment and environment protection.

Special attention was drawn to the issue of cooperation in regional security and topics such as coordinated counter-terrorism efforts, illegal migration, drug trafficking and etc.

Some major international issues such as the situation in Afghanistan, settlement of the situation concerning Iran's nuclear program, situation in Ukraine, challenges of migration flows to Europe and others were also discussed.

The Foreign Ministers welcomed the European Union's commitment to engagement with the Central Asian countries and the significant increase to over one billion euros of financial support to programs to be implemented in Central Asia in the period 2014-2020.

The Participants agreed on the importance of a comprehensive EU approach to the region, which encompasses not only multilateral financial assistance, but also support by individual EU Member States and the active engagement of European financial institutions.

In his opening speech, Minister Idrissov has stressed the need to strengthen cooperation in fighting against modern threats to peace and stability in Central Asia and the EU.

He also mentioned further development of the economic and trade relations between the EU and the countries of the region.

He urged the participants of the meeting to work on removing trade barriers and create a competitive regional market in Central Asia.

EU is the second largest trading partner in Central Asia after China. Enditem