Kazakhstan considers Indonesia as one of the key partners in South-East Asia and wishes to strengthen bilateral cooperation with it in all areas of mutual interest
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to Indonesia Daniyar Sarekenov echoed his country's keenness to strengthen bilateral cooperation with Indonesia in all areas of mutual interest.

"Kazakhstan considers Indonesia as one of the key partners in South-East Asia and wishes to strengthen bilateral cooperation with it in all areas of mutual interest," Sarekenov noted in a special interview with Antara here on Friday.

The ambassador remarked that efforts to strengthen relations is implausible without maintaining regular political dialog. The latter is what encourages collaboration. Hence, Sarekenov said that they are currently working on revitalizing political dialog between the two countries.

Sarekenov explained that according to the Foreign Policy Concept of Kazakhstan for 2020-2030, one of their priorities was to strengthen relations with Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia, with economic cooperation to be their focus in the bilateral relations.

"For sure, in bilateral relations, we are focusing on economic cooperation to increase trade, attract mutual investments, and connect business to business," he remarked.

He pointed to a significant positive trend in the bilateral trade volume between Indonesia and Kazakhstan. Last year, the trade turnover doubled and reached US$174.2 million, with a growth rate of more than 100 percent. During the January-March 2022 period, bilateral trade increased by 210 percent to US$118 million.

Apart from the bilateral relations, Kazakhstan is also keen to develop cultural interactions and encourage citizens of both countries to travel to know more about each other.

"This will create mutual understanding and respect for their respective histories, culture, and civilization as well as the beauty and nature of the two countries," he remarked.

By and large, the ambassador believes that enormous potential exists for development of Kazakh-Indonesian ties in future.

"We have plenty of work to do to increase the beneficial outcomes of the bilateral ties," he stated.

Sarekenov explained that Kazakh-Indonesia relations date back to around 1990. The efforts on the way to forging and expanding mutually beneficial cooperation allowed the country to establish strong friendly relations with Indonesia.

Moreover, the exchange of visits by presidents Nazarbayev and Soeharto marked the start of the political dialogue. Both visits took place in 1995. A new series of high-level visits took place during the 2012-2013 period.

"These mutual visits laid a firm foundation for further development of cooperation, served to consistently strengthen friendly and mutually beneficial ties between the two countries, and also contributed to the activization of contacts," the ambassador stated.

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Reporter: Katriana
Editor: Sri Haryati
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