President of Kazakhstan His Excellency Kassym-Jomart Tokayev received a ceremonial welcome and called on President Tharman Shanmugaratnam at the Istana today. President Tokayev met separately with Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong, who also hosted lunch. He will also be hosted by President Tharman at the State Banquet this evening.

President Tharman and President Tokayev reaffirmed the warm ties between Singapore and Kazakhstan underpinned by good personal ties between the leaders. As strategic hubs in their respective regions, Singapore and Kazakhstan can work together for mutual benefit. Both Presidents welcomed stronger connectivity and people-to-people ties, including through education, cultural exchanges and tourism. President Tharman looked forward to Kazakhstan’s impending  ratification of the bilateral Services and Investment Agreement under the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union-Singapore Free Trade Agreement, which would help spur greater economic engagements between the two countries.  Prime Minister Wong and President Tokayev noted the growing partnership between Singapore and Kazakhstan since diplomatic ties were established in 1993. They discussed ways to deepen bilateral cooperation, including in areas such as education, food security, green energy and digitalisation. Prime Minister Wong encouraged Kazakh companies to use Singapore as a gateway to engage Southeast Asia and vice versa. Prime Minister Wong and President Tokayev had a useful exchange of views on global and regional developments. Both President Tharman and Prime Minister Wong welcomed Air Astana's plans to launch direct flights to Singapore.

Prime Minister Wong and President Tokayev welcomed the signing of six government-to-government agreements in the areas of economic cooperation, higher education, intellectual property rights protection, legal cooperation, security cooperation, and standards. The list of agreements is at Annex.

Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat and President Tokayev officiated the closing of the Third Kazakhstan-Singapore Business Forum earlier this afternoon.

.     .     .     .     .

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

SINGAPORE

23 MAY 2024

Annex

Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the Republic of Singapore and the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Economic Cooperation

Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Singapore and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Cooperation in the Field of Higher Education

Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Law of the Republic of Singapore and the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Cooperation in Intellectual Property Rights Protection

Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Law of the Republic of Singapore and the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Legal Cooperation

Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Republic of Singapore and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan regarding Security Cooperation

Agreement on Cooperation for Distribution and Translation of Singapore Standards between Enterprise Singapore and Kazakhstan Institute of Standardization and Metrology