UK Minister for Central Asia Tobias Ellwood to visit Astana

ASTANA. KAZINFORM - The United Kingdom's Minister for Central Asia, Mr Tobias Ellwood MP, will visit Astana from 8 - 9 of October. This is Tobias Ellwood's first visit to Kazakhstan, and reflects the growing cooperation between the two countries, the UK Embassy's press service reports.

The purpose of Tobias Ellwood's visit is to participate, as co-Chair, in the second UK - Kazakhstan Strategic Dialogue meeting on 8 October, following the inaugural meeting in London in October 2014. The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Mr Volkov, will co-Chair on behalf of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The initiative to hold such meetings on an annual basis was proposed during the historic visit of the UK Prime Minister David Cameron to Kazakhstan in 2013. This platform allows both countries to discuss political issues of mutual interest and exchange views on the most topical issues on the international agenda. During the visit Mr Ellwood will also have a series of high-level meetings with key Kazakh government officials and Ministers to discuss a wide range of bilateral, regional and international issues affecting both countries. These meetings, and the second round of the Strategic Dialogue talks in Astana, highlight the increasing level of co-operation between the UK and Kazakhstan. "I'm delighted to be a co-chair of the Kazakhstan - United Kingdom Strategic Dialogue together with my counterpart - Deputy Minister Volkov. Such regular high level dialogue is further evidence of our growing bilateral cooperation. Our discussions are especially timely, as they take place just a month before the official visit of President Nursultan Nazarbayev to London on November 3-4, 2015," Tobias Ellwood MP said of his upcoming visit to Astana.