The text of the following statement was released by the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Government of the United States of America on the occasion of the annual United States-Kazakhstan Enhanced Strategic Partnership Dialogue.
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Building on 31 years of partnership, on November 6, 2023, First Deputy Foreign Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kairat Umarov welcomed U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu and a U.S. delegation in Astana for the 5th annual United States -Kazakhstan Enhanced Strategic Partnership Dialogue (ESPD). The U.S.-Kazakhstan ESPD was created to find opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation and to advance shared priorities.
First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Kairat Umarov opened the meeting by highlighting the successful and productive first ever C5+1 Presidential Summit on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September 2023. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu underscored Kazakhstan's active support of the C5+1 diplomatic platform as an important tool to address challenges together and to create a more prosperous and secure Central Asia, and reaffirmed the United States' unwavering support for Kazakhstan's sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity.
The Kazakh and U.S. delegations discussed political and security issues, which included regional geopolitical topics, counterterrorism, law enforcement cooperation, countering the synthetic drugs threat, and ways in which the United States and Kazakhstan can partner on non-proliferation. The participants discussed maintaining open channels of communication, including dialogues and exchange of mutual visits.
The delegations discussed priority economic lines of effort, including facilitating and diversifying trade and investment, cooperating to expand clean energy deployment and combatting the climate crisis, critical minerals and geology partnership, as well as science and technology cooperation. The participants also emphasized the importance of facilitating sustainable development of transport routes, identifying the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI) as a potential avenue to address this goal. The two sides share a desire to continue working toward permanent normal trade relations. The delegations intend to continue consultations on sanctions policy.
During the human dimension discussion, the United States and Kazakhstan highlighted political reforms, good governance, rule of law, and continued education exchange programs. The two delegations discussed efforts to promote media freedom and foster a resilient civil society, as well as to protect the rights of persons with disabilities and combat trafficking in persons. First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Kairat Umarov underscored Kazakhstan's commitment to fully implement President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's reform agenda, and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu reaffirmed the United States' strong support for advancing those reforms and commitment to practical cooperation founded on mutual interests and shared values.
First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Kairat Umarov and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu acknowledged the ESPD is a valuable format to advance bilateral cooperation and reaffirmed their intention to convene the next U.S.- Kazakhstan ESPD in Washington in 2024.
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