BISHKEK (TCA) — During his visit to Kyrgyzstan, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has vowed to develop closer ties with Kyrgyzstan and other Turkic nations of Central Asia, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service reported.

Speaking to journalists after talks with Kyrgyzstan President Sooronbai Jeenbekov on September 4, Orban said it was “an honor to be the first Hungarian prime minister to pay a visit to Kyrgyzstan.”

“Hungary remembers its origin. Europe deems us to be the easternmost Western people. But they also see us as alien because we have no kin there. Hungary will look after its cultural roots,” Orban said, adding that his visit to Bishkek was “successful”.

Orban invited Jeenbekov to visit Hungary and expressed gratitude to the Kyrgyz leader “for doing the utmost” for Hungary’s accession to the Council of Turkic-Speaking States, also known as the Turkic Council.

The Turkic Council was established in October 2009 with Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkey as the group’s founding members.

The presidents of the four member states convened in Kyrgyzstan’s resort city of Cholpon-Ata on September 3.

Orban and Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev attended the Turkic Council as “honored guests”.

Mirziyoyev announced that Uzbekistan was eager to join the Turkic Council.

“We are happy and ready to become a part of this organization and propose the Uzbek city of Khiva to be the capital of the Turkic Council,” Mirziyoyev said, adding that Tashkent would use its membership in the organization to focus on trade and economic cooperation between member states.

TASHKENT (TCA) — Dutch bank ING has agreed to pay fines and other payments of 775 million euros ($900 million) after admitting “serious shortcomings” in executing policies to prevent financial crime, including bribe payments by an international telecommunications provider to an Uzbek company, RFE/RL reported.

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KABUL (TCA) — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said late on September 4 that he has appointed former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad to be his special adviser on Afghanistan, RFE/RL reports.

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KABUL (TCA) — The founder of the Haqqani network, one of Afghanistan’s most dangerous and feared militant groups, has died after a long illness, the network’s ally, the Afghan Taliban, has announced, RFE/RL reports.

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KABUL (TCA) — Taliban commander Sher Agha says that the Taliban movement is in favor of direct peace negotiations with the Afghan government without waiting for the participation of other parties. The news comes after earlier announcement of the Afghan Foreign Ministry that it would not attend the Moscow format meeting on Afghanistan scheduled for September 4, Russia’s Sputnik news agency reports.

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ASTANA (TCA) — Representative of Kazakh Invest National Company for Investment Support and Promotion in Dubai, Ilya Urazakov, spoke at a meeting with representatives of 14 leading business publications of the United Arab Emirates about prospects and potential of investment and economic cooperation between Kazakhstan and the UAE, Kazakh Invest reported on September 3.

“Historically, our countries have very warm and strategic relations. But the [trade] turnover and investment cooperation could be much higher. According to the opinion of experts from both countries, the potential for economic cooperation can be at least tripled,” Urazakov said.

According to the information for 2017, commodity turnover between the two countries approached the level of 680 million US dollars and the volume of investments in Kazakhstani projects amounted to about 4 billion dollars, while the total amount of foreign investment in the country for the last 10 years has reached 270 billion dollars (63% of all investments in Central Asia).

As part of the presentation of the Investment Strategy of Kazakhstan for 2018-2022, Urazakov noted that today Kazakhstan actively invites the Middle East business to cooperate in various fields of the economy and the most promising sectors for cooperation with the business of the United Arab Emirates are such sectors as agriculture, subsoil use, petrochemicals, and tourism.

According to Urazakov, 220 million hectares of agricultural land in the heart of Eurasia and exemption from taxes is what Kazakhstan offers today for investors from the UAE, within the framework of the investment cooperation program.

“Today there is no doubt that cooperation between Kazakhstan and the UAE will be extremely successful. Our countries are interested in each other. The UAE has the latest technology, excellent management and international expertise. Kazakhstan is ready to offer in addition to the richest resource base, conditions for high-quality processing, full state support and, of course, access to new markets. Our country is a window that opens access to a new, actively developing market of 500 million people, and these are the countries of Central Asia, the territory of Western China, Russia and the Caspian states,” Urazakov said.