By Euronews
Published on
Italy and Kazakhstan have signed a set of deals worth €4bn during a visit by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to Astana.
The agreements were across a variety of sectors, including oil and gas, renewable energy and water management.
Meloni said she did not consider her visit “merely a formality, but substantial”.
“Italy was the first EU nation to have decided to invest in relations with Central Asia and its individual member states, setting up a stable format for the sharing of ideas,” Meloni continued.
The Italian prime minister added that the EU-Central Asia Summit held in April had elevated relations between the regions.
Her Kazakh counterpart Qasym-Jomart Tokayev said his country attached “great importance to the development of trade between our states”.
“Italy is Kazakhstan’s third largest trading partner and the largest within the European Union. The volume of trade has reached 20 billion dollars (€17.6bn),” Tokayev noted.
Before heading to Kazakhstan, Meloni visited Uzbekistan for the first leg of a Central Asian trip that began on Wednesday.
For the occasion, one of the city of Samarkand’s main streets was given the name “via di Roma”, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said.
At the meeting between Meloni and Mirziyoyev, a joint declaration was signed that paves the way for €3bn in agreements between the countries.
