NATO Deputy Secretary General visits Kazakhstan
The Deputy Secretary General of NATO, Ambassador Claudio Bisognero, visited the Kazakh capital Astana on Thursday, 11 September. He met with Minister of Foreign Affairs Marat Tazhin, Defence Minister Daniyal Akhmetov and other senior government officials and discussed a range of issues relevant both to NATO and Kazakhstan.
NATO-Kazakhstan co-operation encompasses a broad range of areas, such as defence and security sector reform, military interoperability between NATO and Kazakh forces, civil emergency planning and scientific co-operation.
During the visit, Ambassador Bisognero said: "My visit here today is a clear sign that the relationship between NATO and Kazakhstan is and remains important Kazakhstan's Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) has greatly advanced the scope of our cooperation."
NATO's deepening relations with all Central Asian Partners in recent years have been key to enhancing security in the Euro-Atlantic area. "Recent events in Georgia have not changed NATO’s commitment to deepen our relationship with our Central Asian Partners"; added the Deputy Secretary General.
Ambassador Bisognero and his Kazakh counterparts agreed that a broad international cooperative effort is the only feasible approach to safeguard our security in a globalised world.