Finnish, Kazakh presidents discuss geopolitics, bilateral ties amid official visit to Kazakhstan

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev met with his Finnish counterpart Alexander Stubb, who embarked on his first official visit to the Central Asian nation since taking office last year.

Stubb arrived in the Kazakh capital Astana earlier on Tuesday as part of a two-day visit to the country. The visit is the first by a Finnish president to Kazakhstan since 2017.

In his opening remarks at the meeting, a video of which was published by the Kazakh presidential press service Akorda, Tokayev defined Stubb’s visit as an important event that will give additional impetus to the development of the bilateral cooperation between Astana and Helsinki.

Tokayev defined Stubb’s visit as an important event that will give additional impetus to the development of the bilateral cooperation between Astana and Helsinki.

“We have excellent traditions of mutual friendship and cooperation. We have no problems,” Tokayev said. “There are many untapped opportunities in our investments, cooperation, trade, and I think that (the) business forum which is being organised under your initiative, is extremely important,” he added.

Another item on Kazakhstan’s agenda was business cooperation with Finland, which is a member of both EU and NATO.

According to Finnish news agency STT, the leaders discussed bilateral ties, geopolitics in the region and the war in Ukraine. It was also expected that Stubb would bring up the topic of sanctioned goods ending up in Russia from Kazakhstan, Finnish media reported.

Kazakhstan, which shares a 7,599 km border with Russia, has maintained close relations with its neighbour since the start of the Ukraine war. The country entered into a customs union with Russia and Belarus in 2010, but has emphasised to the EU that it follows all rules related to sanctions.

Noting that he will participate in the business forum in Astana later on Tuesday afternoon, Tokayev said he hopes the event will “inspire and stimulate” business ties between the two countries.

He went on to express confidence that the Finnish president’s visit will open up new opportunities for strengthening the partnership between their countries.

Accompanied by over 20 leading Finnish companies during the visit, Stubb said that the other matter on the agenda of their talks in Astana is foreign policy and security issues.

“I think we have lots of mutual interest, and we are trying to find solutions to complicated situations,” he added.