ROMA (ITALPRESS) – Political and diplomatic relations between Italy and Kazakhstan have seen a continuous strengthening in recent years. It is the opinion of Yerbolat Sembayev, ambassador of Kazakhstan in Italy, interviewed by Claudio Brachino for Diplomacy Magazine, the column of geopolitics of the Italpress Agency. “For two or three years, relations have strengthened a lot. We can give a picture of the political visits we have organized in recent years. First there was the visit of the vice-premier and foreign minister Tajani, in September 2023 (ad Astana). After that we had the visit of the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, in January 2024 (in Italy). And this year we had many political visits, that of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Kazakhstan, not only for bilateral issues but also for a summit, the first summit between Italy and Central Asia, a region that is becoming very important not only for Italy but for Europe and for all the countries of the West. Then, as a conclusion of the political year, if we can say so, there was the visit of the President of the Italian Republic Mattarella in Kazakhstan. This means that political relations were already tight, but now they are strengthening and this is a goal that we as diplomats consider,” said Sembayev.
Political relations also strengthen economic and cultural relations, according to the ambassador. “I want to emphasize that the last visit of an Italian president in Kazakhstan (before Mattarella’s effetttuated one) was in 1997, then 28 years ago. This is another significant element, which shows Italy’s interest in Kazakhstan,” he noted. “And I would like to reiterate once again that it is not only about Kazakhstan, but of all Central Asia. There was also a European summit, between the European Union and Central Asia, in Samarkand (Uzbekistan), and then recently there was a summit in Washington, between the United States and Central Asia. This demonstrates an interest not only in Italy but also in other countries in Kazakhstan and throughout Central Asia”, added the head of the diplomatic mission in Rome. Political relationships are pairing with economic ones.
“Italy is the first trading partner of Kazakhstan in the European Union and the third in the world. As for the interchange, most of it certainly consists of resources, raw materials such as oil from Kazakhstan. We provide almost 10 percent of the European requirement,” he said. In the oil sector, Italian Eni was a pioneer in investment in Kazakhstan. “Eni is one of the first companies, not only Italian, but worldwide, that have come to Kazakhstan to invest in the oil industry. In 20 years, as regards this area of cooperation, Italy has invested almost $8 billion in the Kazaka economy,” said Sembayev.
“Now Eni is also diversifying its presence in Kazakhstan, developing green energy, renewable energy, different wind power plants, solar power plants that are already built and this gives an impetus for further development,” he added. The ambassador stressed the importance of diversifying the voices of the exchange. “Engineering, agri-food, pharmaceutical: there are so many areas where we can cooperate and strengthen our relations,” he said.
“The first thing is green energy, as I said. Eni is going very hard in this sector and we hope to strengthen it again. The agri-food industry is also very important for Kazakhstan. A part of our economy is agricultural, we have enormous land and we have a huge opportunity to strengthen our presence as a supplier in agri-food. For example, Italy is very strong in this sector, so we are working to bring Italian technologies with the aim of producing in Kazakhstan, not only for Kazakhstan, but also for neighbouring countries and to export to Europe,” said the ambassador.
Another important sector is that of rare lands. “As you know Kazakhstan is a country that has so many rare lands, there are so many raw materials in our territory, so we can strengthen (cooperation) also in this area. In this regard, during the visit of President Meloni we have signed a memorandum, so we wait for all Italians and Italian companies that are strong in this field, so that they can not only invest from the financial point of view but also bring Italian technologies in Kazakhstan”, Sembayev noted.
The cultural aspect, finally, keeps pace with the political and economic aspect. In fact, Italy opened in Kazakhstan, in the city of Almaty, the first Italian Institute of Culture in Central Asia. “This is of great importance because it is the soft power of culture, of Italian diplomacy towards the countries of Central Asia,” said Sembayev. “We as an embassy are doing our best to get to know Kazakhstan in Italy,” he continued. “For example, in October we inaugurated the bust of our essay, poet, writer and philosopher Abai, in a park in Rome. We have presented several books about Kazakhstan, its personalities. We are doing several concerts and many other things to bring our countries closer through culture, through cultural diplomacy,” said the ambassador.
-Foto Italpress-
(ITALPRESS).
