Cultural cooperation between Belgium and Kazakhstan was high on the bilateral relations agenda during the first ever visit of the Belgian Royal couple to my motherland! Prince Philippe had visited Kazakhstan before three times already as the prince, and this time as the King!
From the 11th until the 14th of October the royal couple visited Astana and Almaty, having on their agendas meeting with the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassie-Jomart Tokayev, who accompanied the royal couple almost everywhere in Astana, from the state visit to business forum, from academic forum to the opening of Ensor exhibition in National Museum of Astana! The exhibition “Between the Mask and Reality” of Ensor was opened and will last until the 13th of January 2027!
It was organized in collaboration with The Benelux Chamber of Commerce, The Embassy of Kazakhstan in Belgium, The Ministry of Culture of The Republic of Kazakhstan and various partners! A big kudos for this to them!
© Embassy of Kazakhstan
The first state visit of the Monarchy to Central Asia was that too, not only to Kazakhstan! Central Asia is becoming a strategically highly important region and there are different areas of collaboration between the kingdom and the region! This visit to Kazakhstan was under the direction of strengthening not only economic and academic ties, but also tuning cultural cooperation, including exchanges with cultural institutions, such as Kanal Center Pompidou and a new Almaty Museum of Contemporary Art, where the royal couple was greeted by a dance performance of a Brussels-based artist Lila Sieke with her contemporary dance team on the contemporary wallpainting on the back!
© Embassy of Kazakhstan
Yesterday H.E. The Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Belgium Roman Vassilenko during his apres visit presentation at The Press Club of Brussels mentioned that the recent Royal visit and the next 2027 year’s visit of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium Maxime Prevot will mark the 35th Anniversary of Belgian-Kazakhstani Diplomatic Relations and the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Belgian Embassy in Astana, Kazakhstan! Both sides work hard in it!
© Embassy of Kazakhstan
Also Mr. Gommar Dubois, Deputt Director of Department for Central-Asia of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belgium, has underlined the importance of so called “people-to-people” contacts and has assured that the hard work starts also now, after all the official dominants had been signed! Because the implementation part is a challenging task in itself!
© Embassy of Kazakhstan
I am looking forward for the next year, where I also would like try to contribute to this task: to make our counties and cultures become more familiar with each other! Also the people! Make citizen’s diplomacy to open hearts and minds! Use culture and creativity as instruments for dialogue and mutual understanding!
Marilyn Josefsson and Yelena van Kharitonova © photo Yelena van Kharitonova
