Kazakh President Tokayev held phone talk with French President Emmanuel Macron

NUR-SULTAN, September 1 (KAZINFORM) – During a phone conversation initiated by the French side Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Emmanuel Macron debated the current issues of bilateral relations as well as the Afghan situation, Kazinform cites the Akorda press service. The Kazakh Head of State underlined the stable development of mutually beneficial ties between Kazakhstan and France that have reached the strategic partnership level. «France is the fifth economy of the world, one of the main partners and our country pays utmost importance to continuing active joint work for achieving concrete results, particularly in the economic field,» said the Kazakh President. He pointed out that France is among the five major investors of Kazakhstan with total French investments of $17bn since 2005. Mutual trade his $2.8bn in 2020. In his turn, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his interest in further deepening trade and economic and political contacts with Kazakhstan. Both confirmed their readiness to update the contacts at the government level. They agreed to pay attention to implementing anchor projects, thus giving impetus to the Kazakh-French cooperation. The two Presidents also held in-depth discussions on the Afghan situation. Agreement was achieved to keep regular contacts of the corresponding agencies of the two countries on the issues of regional stability and security, which is to take place both bilaterally and multilaterally, including within the UN or other international formats. Been requested by the French President, Tokayev informed about the development of the situation in Afghanistan and the measures taken by the Kazakh Government to evacuate the citizens of the Western countries and Afghans. Macron commended the decision of Kazakhstan to deploy officials of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and other agencies of the Organization within its territory.