During the meeting, Gulshara Abdykalikova thanked Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Italy to Kazakhstan Stefano Ravagnan, who is completing his diplomatic mission, for fruitful work in Kazakhstan and wished further success.
The State Secretary stressed that during the diplomatic mission of Mr. Ravagnan there was a visit of the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev to Italy aimed at participating in the EXPO 2015 in Milan.
Gulshara Abdykalikova noted that for 25 years Kazakhstan and Italy have established trusting relationships that have reached the level of strategic partnership.
-We have watched parliamentary elections in Italy with great interest, which will result in forming the new Parliament and the Cabinet, the Secretary of State said during her conversation with the Ambassador.
Gulshara Abdykalikova congratulated Italy on the current chairmanship in the OSCE and on successful non-permanent membership in the UN Security Council during 2017.
The Secretary of State expressed her gratitude to the Italian leadership for participating in EXPO-2017, noting that the pavilion of Italy presented the best developments in the field of ‘green technologies’.
Also during the meeting, the sides discussed the current state of Kazakh-Italian relations and prospects for political, economic, cultural and humanitarian cooperation.
***
Italy ranks third among all countries of the world that are Kazakhstan’s trading partners. The trade turnover between the two countries in 2017 amounted to 9.6 billion US dollars. For the period from 2005 to 2017 the volume of direct Italian investments in the Kazakh economy amounted to 5.8 billion dollars. Currently, 228 joint ventures with Italian participation operate in Kazakhstan.