ASTANA – President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s recent visit to Brussels was a reinforcement of Kazakhstan’s strategic partnership with the European Union, EU Ambassador to Kazakhstan Aleška Simkić told journalists on July 3. She pointed to continued cooperation on transport, critical raw materials, digitalization, trade, education and people-to-people ties.
EU Ambassador to Kazakhstan Aleška Simkić. Photo credit: The Astana Times/ Assel Satubaldina “ President Tokayev also met with businesses that are very interested in working in Kazakhstan. It was a very successful meeting. Most of those participated in the business roundtable were companies that already work or already have signed some agreements with Kazakhstan,” she told journalists during a briefing at the EU Delegation building in Astana.
Visa facilitation and readmission agreement On visa facilitation and readmission agreement, s he said there is no fixed timeline yet, as the process still needs approval and confirmation on the EU side. Simkić said she hoped it would happen “sooner rather than later,” but cautioned that EU procedures could take several months.
“ Now it [the agreement] has to go back to the member states of the European Union. They are the ones who are competent for visa issuing. It is not the commission. The commission was just given the mandate to negotiate the basic visa facilitation agreement. It has to go back to them [member states] for them to approve it and to confirm it,” she explained, addressing a visa issue that remains of strong interest to Kazakh journalists and the wider public.
“It is very difficult for me to talk about the timeline, because it is not in our hands,” said Simkić. When entered into force, Simkić said the general visa application procedure would remain in place, meaning Kazakh citizens would still need to apply for a visa through the embassy of the EU country where they plan to spend most of their time.
“What will be easier is the timeline should be shorter, the cost should be lower. The documents that you have to provide will be equal no matter which embassy you ask for the visa,” she added. She also noted the agreement would create more opportunities for applicants to receive multiple-entry visas as part of the so-called cascade system.
Under this system, applicants who first receive a shorter-term visa may have a better chance of obtaining a longer-term visa in future applications. Critical raw materials remain a strategic area of cooperation between Kazakhstan and the EU, with one of the key agreements focused on the planned construction of a laboratory for critical raw materials in Kazakhstan.
In Brussels, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Kazakh government concluded a memorandum of understanding to support the feasibility study aimed at building an internationally accredited chemical-analytical laboratory for critical raw materials in Astana.
Simkić noted this initiative was first voiced by President Tokayev during the EU-Central Asia Summit in Samarkand in April 2025.