.jpeg)
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili met with Alihan Smaiylov, Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
At the working meeting, the parties discussed the friendly relations and partnership between Georgia and the Republic of Kazakhstan. The topics discussed included the key directions of cooperation in the areas of tourism, energy, transport, and trade.
Focus was made on the full-scale operation of the Middle Corridor.
The parties also reviewed the positive dynamic of high-level visits in the recent period.
At the meeting, Irakli Garibashvili underlined the development of the Middle Corridor.
"Thank you very much, Mister Prime Minister, my dear friend, my dear colleague.
"Dear friends, I am happy to see you again. You were in Tbilisi in June. And, after several weeks, I am visiting you, as I promised, of course. I am here in your beautiful country, in Almaty. So, once again, thank you very much for your warm welcome and hospitality.
"In Tbilisi, when you were visiting us, Mister Prime Minister, we discussed a wide range of issues related to our bilateral relationship, and also we discussed our ambitious plans, also potential projects, which could be interesting for both countries, for Kazakhstan and Georgia as well.
"Of course, we paid huge attention to the development of the Middle Corridor, and we had a good plan for the development of this corridor. And last year, we signed the roadmap. I think this is very important for us, for the development of this corridor.
"I recently visited China. And we had a good discussion with the Chinese Government regarding our mutual projects, and I mentioned about our plan, our roadmap regarding the future of this corridor. So, I believe our future cooperation will be fruitful that was before and it is now.
"So, once again, thank you for meeting me and my delegation. We are happy to be in your country. Thank you!" the Prime Minister said.
At the working meeting, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan emphasized that Kazakhstan and Georgia enjoy close and long-standing friendly ties and multifaceted cooperation.
"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," Alihan Smaiylov said.
Press Service of the Government Administration