Bosniak leader: Bosnia and Kazakhstan have much room to improve cooperation

NEWS 24.09.201910:47
Fena

There is so much room for improvement of cooperation between Bosnia and Kazakhstan, said Bosniak leader and Speaker of Bosnia's House of Peoples, Bakir Izetbegovic, who is taking part in the fourth Meeting of Eurasian Parliament Speakers in Nursultan, Kazakhstan.

“I think the Kazakh and Bosnian people will find a way to increase their cooperation because I see many similarities in the mentality of both peoples. There are also some historical links. Ottoman Turks brought elements of your culture to us. Nursultan is becoming the centre of events in this part of the world and Bosnia will definitely use that. At the same time, Sarajevo and Bosnia can become such a centre for Kazakhstan because everything in Europe is close to Sarajevo,” Izetbegovic said in an interview with the Bosnian and Kazakh news agencies Fena and Kazniform.

“Every European capital is one hour flight away from Sarajevo, Istanbul is also very close. We have good tax and custom duty-free agreements with the EU so you can invest in Europe via Bosnia. You can also have joint business projects with Bosnian companies,” he added.

Speaking of the conference titled “Greater Eurasia: Dialogue, Trust, Partnership,” which will be held today and tomorrow, Izetbegovic said that the conference's theme is in line with what he was talking about regarding the cooperation between Bosnia and Kazakhstan.

“In order to speed things up, meetings must be held. This time, it's a parliamentary level meeting. The world is becoming smaller thanks to connectivity and technology. Kazakhstan was a remote country to Bosnia and Herzegovina some 20, 30 years ago. Now the communication has facilitated this. We have to take advantage of that. Without high-level communication, the cooperation will be slowed down,” Izetbegovic noted.