Home > National > Diplomacy

Kazakhstan could benchmark Korea, says envoy to Seoul at roundtable discussion

Published: 24 Oct. 2024, 18:43 Updated: 24 Oct. 2024, 19:21

LEE SOO-JUNG
[email protected]

Kazakhstan’s ambassador to Korea, Nurgali Arystanov, center, poses for a photograph at a round table session held at Seoul Cyber University in northern Seoul on Wednesday. [LEE SOO-JUNG]

The Embassy of Kazakhstan on Wednesday held a roundtable discussion at Seoul Cyber University in northern Seoul to celebrate its national Republic Day and bolster people-to-people ties between Korea and Kazakhstan.

Approximately 20 participants, including professors, academic researchers, media personnel and students studying the Kazakh language, attended the event.

In a keynote speech, Kazakhstan’s ambassador to Korea, Nurgali Arystanov, said his country could “follow and emulate the path of Korea, which is highly industrialized and advanced.” He noted that Korea is very similar and close to Kazakhstan.

The ambassador noted that President Yoon Suk Yeol’s state visit to the country was a milestone of the year. During the visit, the two state leaders had “substantial discussions and identified avenues to work together,” he said.

With Yoon's new “K-Silk Road" initiative, the ambassador said Korea is quite important to Central Asia and that Korea has implemented its own version of the U.S.“C5+1” platform, the “C5+K.”

The C5 refers to the five nations of Central Asia — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

He also noted that bilateral efforts are expanding to the parliamentary and intellectual sectors with multifaceted efforts between the two countries.

When asked about Korea's participation in Kazakh’s upcoming nuclear power plant project, the ambassador said the country's Energy Ministry would select the candidate through a “very fair, open and transparent” process.

Prof. Kim Sung-chul from the Institute of Central Asian Studies at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies also said Kazakhstan has now entered a “democratic” phase of “peacefully utilizing nuclear power,” mentioning a recent referendum to vote on the nuclear energy project after the country returned its nuclear arsenal to Russia after independence from the Soviet Union.

Ha Tae-youk, a former Korean diplomat and ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, said both countries need to put extra effort in developing bilateral relations through a long-term mechanism to keep track of mutual agendas and holding summit-level diplomacy more frequently to scale up bilateral cooperation.

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [[email protected]]