Minister of State, Minister for Foreign Affairs Paulo Portas of Portugal and Foreign Affairs Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov of Kazakhstan met on Friday (June 29) in Astana.

This year Kazakhstan and Portugal celebrate 20 years since establishing the diplomatic relations. "That is why Minister Portas's visit is symbolic," Y. Kazykhanov said. In the frame of his visit to Kazakhstan Paulo Portas is expected to meet with the Kazakh authorities and hold a business forum.

The Kazakh Foreign Minister and his Portuguese colleague mainly focused on the strengthening and expansion of the bilateral legal basis. "To be more specific, we discussed the signing of an agreement on protection of investments for the avoidance of double taxation. We have agreed that our countries need to create a bilateral commission," Y. Kazykhanov explained.

The head of the Kazakh MFA also said the sides expressed interest in cooperation in the sphere of consular ties. "It is very important for us to ease the visa regime with many European countries. We have already signed the agreement on diplomatic passports. I believe we will expand out cooperation in order to ease the visa regime between Kazakhstan and Portugal," Y. Kazykhanov noted.

The sales turnover between Kazakhstan and Portugal has reached USD 1 billion.