Page 7 - Japan — Kazakhstan: Bridges of Friendship

JAPAN-KAZAKHSTAN: BRIDGES OF FRIENDSHIP

Dear friends!
I am again happy to greet you from the pages of “Japan-Kazakhstan: Bridges of Friendship” Newsletter.
This year, Kazakhstan and Japan are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. In this
short historical period of time, the bilateral cooperation has reached a level of maturity. Last year’s official visit of the President
of Kazakhstan N.A.Nazarbayev brought Kazakhstan-Japan relations onto a new quality level and convincingly demonstrated
the striving of both countries for further interaction in political, economic, and cultural and humanitarian fields.
A Joint Statement “On the Expanded Strategic Partnership in the Asian Century of Prosperity” signed by President
N.A.Nazarbayev and Prime Minister S.Abe is inherently a road map of the further development of Kazakhstan-Japan
cooperation, and the title of the document speaks for itself.
It should be noted that Kazakhstan and Japan’s relations have always been under the special attention of our Head of
state since the first days of our independence. Thanks to his efforts, in just the first few years of the independence Japanese
companies executed projects under the ODA for the total amount of $1.145 bln. Japanese Government provided free financial
aid of around $65.4 mln and technological support amounting to $67.8 mln.
The inflow of Japanese investments into the Kazakhstani economy for the last 10 years has amounted to some $5 bln.
Japanese companies now express their interest in the activity of Kazakhstan’s free economic zones, use of the transit potential
of the RoK for goods traffic including the use of our terminals in the foreign markets. The economic cooperation between the
two countries is also on the rise in such industries as petrochemical industry, metallurgy, mining industry, telecommunications,
logistics, medicine, agriculture.
Another essential part of our bilateral relations is the partnership in the field of nuclear non-proliferation. As is well
known, Kazakhstan and Japan share a tragic past of the use of nuclear weapons and consequently have the moral right to lead
the international anti-nuclear movement. It is worth mentioning that in 1999 Japan initiated the organization of the Tokyo
International Conference on Semipalatinsk and in 2009 Japan became the only developed country to co-author the UNGA
resolution declaring August 29 the International Day against Nuclear Tests.
The political statements in support of the CTBT made in October 2015 and April 2016 by President Nursultan Nazarbayev
and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in their capacity as the co-chairs of the 9th CTBT Conference also carried great international
significance.
We thus see that, thanks to the political trust and sincere friendship, the relations between Kazakhstan and Japan that
have been built for 25 years have reached a high point of cooperation in a bilateral format as well as on the international stage,
opening up new possibilities for the comprehensive implementation of the expanded strategic partnership.
On my part, I intend to continue to make every effort to strengthen the long-term partnership and friendship between our
countries.
I wish health and success to all the readers of this magazine!

YERLAN BAUDARBEK-KOZHATAYEV,
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Kazakhstan to Japan

www.jica.go.jp /Japan International Cooperation Agency 5