Belgian Embassy active in Kazakh cultural events

    By Jan Furst
    Belgium and Kazakhstan have been publicly matched a few times recently – at the Davis Cup world group match in February of this year, when Kazakhstan ousted Belgium in the first round only to be knocked out by Switzerland, and in the bidding for EXPO 2017 in 2012, when Astana won the honor of hosting the event. The recent friendly competition hasn’t cooled the two countries’ warm, longstanding relationship, however.
    Belgium has opened an embassy in Astana in 2006 and President Nursultan Nazarbayev has paid Brussels two working visits in less than a decade, in 2006 and 2010, to showcase the will to strengthen the bilateral relationship between the two countries and to attract Belgian investors.
    “Our embassy’s priorities in Kazakhstan are for people in Kazakhstan to learn more about Belgium, its people, its cultural heritage and its place in the world economy” Ambassador of Belgium to Kazakhstan, Michel Peetermans told The Astana Times.
    The priorities also are “to promote the economic trade and political ties between the two countries and our citizens. We are working in close cooperation with the EU delegation in different fields. For commercial questions, it is possible to contact our trade attach