Kazakhstan and EU Address Common Security Concerns

On November 14, the European Union Delegation to Kazakhstan, the Embassy of the Netherlands, and the Kazakh government convened a roundtable in Astana to address critical transnational threats impacting both the EU and Kazakhstan. The event gathered more than 70 experts, government officials, and international representatives to discuss pressing issues such as terrorism, human trafficking, migrant smuggling, and other security concerns. Particular attention was given to the interconnected nature of international extremism, border protection, critical infrastructure, drug trafficking, and arms trafficking. Participants underscored the growing level of cooperation between the EU and Kazakhstan, exchanging insights and experiences to enhance joint responses to these multifaceted threats. Kazakhstan’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Roman Vassilenko, emphasized that transnational threats disregard borders and national sovereignty, posing a global challenge. “No country is immune from such issues as cyberattacks, organized crime, terrorism, trafficking in persons, or illegal migration,” he stated. Vassilenko noted that Astana has ratified all 19 UN universal counter-terrorism conventions and protocols, demonstrating its active engagement with the international community, including the EU. EU Ambassador to Kazakhstan Aleska Simkic hailed the roundtable as a significant milestone in security collaboration. “Today’s global security threats are neither confined by borders nor limited to single regions; they affect us all, underscoring the need for a united and coordinated response. The European Union and Kazakhstan are bound by shared interests and mutual challenges—whether addressing extremism, human trafficking, or organized crime. This roundtable offers an essential platform for exchanging insights and best practices, strengthening our common security and resilience, and creating better coordination between actions that both sides are already implementing. By working together, we build not only a safer Central Asia and Europe but also contribute to broader regional stability and peace,” Simkic said. Dutch Ambassador to Kazakhstan Nico Schermers echoed this sentiment, emphasizing the importance of collaboration. “Only by working together and learning from each other’s perspectives and insights can we tackle transnational threats affecting the European Union and Kazakhstan,” he remarked. The roundtable concluded with both the EU and Kazakhstan reaffirming their commitment to combat terrorism, trafficking, and organized crime, paving the way for deeper and more effective cooperation in the future.

Central Asia: Working Together on Border Landscapes

Talk of closer cooperation among Central Asian countries has ebbed and flowed as far back as the period after independence from Soviet rule in the early 1990s. The goal of a more unified region is a work in progress, though one promising area of collaboration is a plan to restore and protect damaged ecosystems in border regions. The first regional meeting on the topic, held this month in Tashkent, Uzbekistan’s capital, brought together government officials from the host nation as well as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. The portfolios of the delegates were nature preservation, protected areas, emergencies, agriculture, and forestry. They talked about coordinating on wildfire alert systems in cross-border areas, erosion control, tree-planting and nature-oriented tourism in protected areas and other sites shared by Central Asia countries, according to the Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia, a non-profit group based in Almaty, Kazakhstan that promotes regional dialogue on the environment. The group, which organized the Tashkent meeting, was created in 2001 by the five Central Asian states as well as the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme. The initiative is supported by a $256 million World Bank program to restore degraded landscapes in the region. The World Bank has noted big progress toward poverty alleviation and economic growth by Central Asian countries in the last decades. However, it has cautioned that oil and gas extraction in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan have taken a heavy environmental toll, while soil erosion and water scarcity have accompanied land development in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Arid conditions exacerbated by climate change and inefficient management threaten transboundary water resources, a problem that is becoming increasingly severe. “A key example of tragic impacts on livelihoods and health of communities in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and across the region are massive sand and salt storms originating from the land areas once covered by the Aral Sea,” the Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia said. It cited an international disaster database as saying more than 10 million people in Central Asia have “suffered from land degradation-related disasters” since 1990, inflicting damages estimated at around $2.5 billion. Central Asian countries also seek to collaborate on early warning systems and other emergency precautions as they face a variety of natural hazards, including floods, landslides and droughts. Supported by United Nations agencies, the heads of the national emergency departments of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan convened in August at a lakeside resort town in northern Kyrgyzstan. There, they shared information and experiences.