On 3 and 4 December 2025, the President of the European Council António Costa (pictured) will travel to Astana, Kazakhstan to strengthen the European Union’s engagement with Central Asia. President Costa will meet with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and mark the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (EPCA) between Kazakhstan and the EU, as well as the launch of negotiations on the Visa Facilitation Agreement and the Readmission Agreement. The President’s visit to Astana highlights the positive momentum of the growing strategic partnership between the European Union and Kazakhstan, especially relevant in today’s geopolitical context.
“The European Union and Kazakhstan are building a partnership that contributes to peace, enhances global co-operation, reinforces sustainable connectivity, and underpins Europe’s long-term resilience. The next decade must be defined by implementation: stronger value chains, modernised infrastructure, deeper technological cooperation, and tangible joint projects. Together, we can turn shared challenges into shared strengths.”
António Costa, President of the European Council
On 4 December, President Costa will hold a bilateral meeting with President Tokayev to assess the progress of the EU-Kazakhstan partnership as well as to discuss the current geopolitical context, notably Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the defence of the UN Charter and the rules-based order, and Kazakhstan’s contributions to the stability of Central Asia and the South Caucasus. Following the meeting, both leaders will participate in a ceremony to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the EPCA and deliver a joint press statement.
President Costa’s visit follows the first summit between the leaders of the EU and the five countries of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan), held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan in April, when both sides agreed to elevate their partnership to a strategic one around shared areas of priorities: critical raw materials, transport, connectivity, energy, digitalization and people-to-people contacts. Since then, important progress on all these key priorities has been made, with the 3rd EU-Central Asia Economic Forum and the 2nd EU-Central Asia Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor and Investors Forum held in Tashkent last week, as well as the start on 2 December of the talks on the Visa Facilitation Agreement, which will support business, innovation, and academic links between the two sides.
Background
Ten years after the EU and Kazakhstan signed the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, the EU-Kazakhstan relationship has grown into a broad and modern partnership covering political dialogue, security, economic cooperation, as well multilateral diplomacy, connectivity, and innovation. The EU-Kazakhstan strategic partnership can help accelerate energy diversification, scale investments into renewable energy resources, support technological development and supply a large share of the raw materials critical for the EU. A Memorandum of Understanding on sustainable critical raw materials, batteries and green hydrogen value chains was signed in November 2022 and an implementation roadmap for 2025-2026 was endorsed in April 2025.
