Georgia is an important and reliable partner of Kazakhstan in the South Caucasus, said Alihan Smaiylov, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan, at the meeting with the Prime Minister of Georgia.

“I am glad that we meet again, and welcome to Kazakhstan, Almaty! Once again, I would like to express our gratefulness for your hospitality and a very good atmosphere during my visit to Tbilisi in June. We were able to discuss a whole range of interaction issues and work out concrete measures to intensify it. We are currently taking active steps to implement all agreements reached.

Kazakhstan and Georgia are bound by close and long-standing ties of friendship and multifaceted cooperation. It is a pleasure to point out that the traditional high-level interaction is further enhanced by the intensity of our meetings.

We support mutual readiness to develop Kazakh-Georgian cooperation based on trust and respect. Georgia is an important and reliable partner of Kazakhstan in the South Caucasus.

During my visit to Georgia, we agreed to increase the annual indicators of mutual trade. And it is very good to see that, according to the results of six months, we see that our mutual trade increased by 30%. To further increase our trade turnover, volumes of our trade, I propose to use the possibilities of our Intergovernmental Commission.

We attach great importance to cooperation in the fields of transit and transportation. It is gratifying that our partnership in the development of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route is rapidly strengthening. In six months of this year, the volume of cargo transportation on the Middle Corridor increased by 77% and reached 1.3 million tons. The agreements reached at our last meeting have given additional impetus to the development of the route.

Particular importance was attached to the issues of digitalization, ensuring stable tariffs for transportation, and the creation of a single logistics operator on the corridor. We are interested in increasing the region’s transport connectivity and continuously improving transit conditions. In these plans, we certainly take into account the transit and transport potential of Georgia.

In general, the Government of Kazakhstan is determined to continue multifaceted work to ensure the dynamic development of Kazakh-Georgia partnership in all areas”, - said Alihan Smaiylov.