Finnish, Kazakh presidents discuss bilateral ties amid official visit

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Tuesday discussed bilateral ties 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 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.

"We have excellent traditions of mutual friendship and cooperation. We have no problems, … but anyway, there are many untapped opportunities in our investments, cooperation, trade, and I think that (the) business forum which is being organized under your initiative is extremely important," Tokayev said.

Noting that he will participate in the business forum in Astana later this 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.

For his part, Stubb said he believes they will focus on developing their bilateral relations and business cooperation as one of two key areas of their meeting.

Expressing that he is 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.