President Nursultan Nazarbayev attaches particular importance to strengthening comprehensive and mutually beneficial cooperation with the Arab world, the Foreign Ministernoted. Ambassadors learned about the new powers of the Foreign Ministry in generating investment and promoting Kazakh exports abroad. Minister Atamkulov highlighted Kazakhstan's interest in the development of trade and economic relations, as well as in joint investment projects in energy, logistics, agriculture and other areas.

It was emphasized that, to date, the significantpotential of trade, economic and investment cooperation with most Arab countries still remained untapped.

The Minister highlighted that in 2018, Kazakhstan's total trade turnover with all 22 Arab countries wasless than $1 billion, and thattotal investment so far amounted to only $2.4 billion. However, the Foreign Minister pointed out that joint projects worth $9 billion werecurrently under development.

In order to enhance trade and economic cooperation, attention was focused on addressing challenges in transport and logistics, the need to further develop tourism, including through visa liberalization.

In this regard, the Minister of Foreign Affairs called on his Arab partners to actively engagein all areas of bilateral cooperation.

Furthermore, MinisterAtamkulov confirmed his participation in the 46th Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to be held in Abu Dhabi on March 1st – 2nd. He noted that the agenda included “a wide range of issues relevant to our countries." He expressed hope that on the sidelines of this event he would meet with foreign ministers of the OIC member countries, including Arab aministers.