Important to find political solution to situation in Afghanistan – EU Special Representative to CA

While speaking to the press, Terhi Hakala said this was her first official visit in her capacity as a Special Representative of the European Union, but as a Finnish diplomat she has been in Nur-Sultan before. During her visit to the Kazakh capital she had meetings with the Kazakh President, Senate deputies and reps of civil society and is expected to meet with EU diplomatic corps.

At the press briefing the EU Special Representative for Central Asia praised the dynamics of the EU-Kazakhstan relations.

«We have the framework, we have the Enhanced Partnership Agreement, we are working on it. We are working on the implementation of the EU-Central Asia Strategy which was adopted in 2019. Of course, it was a bit interrupted by the COVID situation. We picked up little by little when things got easier. We have a very good dialogue, good cooperation. We can speak about many issues, including the human rights, the role of civil society. We have an open dialogue,» she noted.

When asked about the situation in Afghanistan, Terhi Hakala revealed that EU is in the discussion of what happened last Sunday.

«The EU is having second Foreign Affairs Council. We are in the process of evacuating our staff from Afghanistan. We are also evacuating the locally hired staff members. So, it’s a long process. Part of the people are still in Kabul, but we are in the process... It is too early to say how things will evolve at this point, but everybody is following with great worry. The EU of course wants to have the international humanitarian law and human rights respected and all the commitments Afghanistan has made internationally. It’s very important that things evolve calmly and the political solution is found,» she emphasized.