Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

and

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

established diplomatic relations on 1 October 1992. Greece opened an embassy in

Almaty Almaty (; kk, Алматы; ), formerly known as Alma-Ata ( kk, Алма-Ата), is the List of most populous cities in Kazakhstan, largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of about 2 million. It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 to ...

in February 1997. Kazakhstan opened an embassy in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

in 2005. Kazakhstan has had an honorary consulate in Athens since 1998. Kazakhstan has a Greek community of 10,000 to 12,000 people. The Greek community is a valued ethnic group in Kazakhstan's multi-ethnic society. Kazakhstan's diplomats regularly brief Greek officials of the Greek community in Kazakhstan. Along with communities based in nearby Kyrgyzstan, the expatriate Greeks are served by a "Friendship federation", which publishes a small newspaper and organises social events.

Political Cooperation

The two countries have a Kazakhstan - Greece Parliamentary Friendship Group.

Economic Co-operation

In addition to a general desire to improve ties and develop trade with the EU, Kazakhstan has particular interest in the Burgas–Alexandroupoli pipeline which will allow the transport of its oil from the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

port of

Burgas Burgas ( bg, Бургас, ), sometimes transliterated as ''Bourgas'', is the second largest city on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast in the region of Northern Thrace and the fourth-largest in Bulgaria after Sofia, Plovdiv, and Varna, with a popu ...

to the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Aegean port of

Alexandroupoli Alexandroupolis ( el, Αλεξανδρούπολη, ), Alexandroupoli, or Alexandrople is a city in Greece and the capital of the Evros regional unit. It is the largest city in Western Thrace and the region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. It h ...

, thus providing access to the markets of Southern and Western Europe while bypassing the

Bosporus The Bosporus Strait (; grc, Βόσπορος ; tr, İstanbul Boğazı 'Istanbul strait', colloquially ''Boğaz'') or Bosphorus Strait is a natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in Istanbul in northwestern T ...

and the

Dardanelles The Dardanelles (; tr, Çanakkale Boğazı, lit=Strait of Çanakkale, el, Δαρδανέλλια, translit=Dardanéllia), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli from the Gallipoli peninsula or from Classical Antiquity as the Hellespont (; ...

. Former Greece president

Konstantinos Stephanopoulos Konstantinos "Kostis" Stephanopoulos ( el, Κωνσταντίνος (Κωστής) Στεφανόπουλος, 15 August 1926 – 20 November 2016) was a Greek conservative politician who served two consecutive terms as the president of Gree ...

has expressed admiration for Kazakhstan and interest in further developing trade.

List of bilateral visits

* The Kazakh President

Nursultan Nazarbayev Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev ( kk, Нұрсұлтан Әбішұлы Назарбаев, Nūrsūltan Äbişūlı Nazarbaev, ; born 6 July 1940) is a Kazakh politician and military officer who served as the first President of Kazakhstan, in off ...

visited Greece in July 2001 * The

President of Greece The president of Greece, officially the President of the Hellenic Republic ( el, Πρόεδρος της Ελληνικής Δημοκρατίας, Próedros tis Ellinikís Dimokratías), commonly referred to in Greek as the President of the Rep ...

Konstantinos Stephanopoulos visited Kazakhstan in June 2002. *The Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev also attended the

2004 Summer Olympics opening ceremony The opening ceremony of the 2004 Summer Olympics was held on August 13, 2004 starting at 20:45 EEST (UTC+3) at the Olympic Stadium in Marousi, Greece, a suburb of Athens. As mandated by the Olympic Charter, the proceedings combined the forma ...

Bilateral agreements

The Greek parliament ratified in 2017 the European Union's Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with Kazakhstan opening wider the door for enhanced trade, FDI and political collaboration between Greece and Kazakhstan. * Economic and Technological Cooperation Agreement * Agreement on the Promotion and Protection of Investments. * The first meeting of the Greek-Kazakh Joint Interministerial Committee was held in July 2006 and a relevant Protocol was signed between the two countries.

Ambassadors of Greece to Kazakhstan

* (the embassy opened in February 1997) # Kontantin Tritaris 09/29/1997 - 05/17/2000 (Almaty) # Nikolaos Khatupis 07/06/2000 - 22/01/2005 (Almaty) # Christ Kontovunisios 02/19/2005 - 09/12/2008 (Almaty) # Evangelos Denaksas 11/12/2008 - 31/03/2011 (Almaty - Astana) # Efthymios Pandzopoulos 12/28/2011 - 07/10/2016 # Alexandros Katranis 07/13/2016 - 8/31/2019 (Astana) # Adam-Georgios Adamidis 9/22/2019 - today (Nur-Sultan) История - О Посольстве
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References

External links

Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the relation with Kazakhstan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greek-Kazakh Relations