On 8 September 2021, ICMPD Director General Mr. Michael Spindelegger met with a high-level delegation of the Kyrgyz Republic led by Mr. Talant Mamytov, Speaker of the Parliament of the Kyrgyz Republic. Guided by the will to continue, deepen and extend cooperation, a Memorandum of understanding was signed by both parties to define the direction of joint efforts for the future.
Both parties exchanged views on mutual cooperation focusing on the priorities of Kyrgyzstan in the sphere of migration, touching also upon the potential impact of the situation in Afghanistan on Kyrgyzstan and the Central Asian region.
The delegation of Kyrgyzstan headed by the Speaker of the Jogorku Kenesh, the Parliament of the Kyrgyz Republic included the recently appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Austria H.E. Tolendy Makeev, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Azizbek Madmarov, Members of the Parliament as well as representatives of the Council for Migration, Compatriots and Diaspora Abroad under the Speaker of the Parliament.
Both parties underlined that ICMPD and Kyrgyzstan do have a long-lasting history of cooperation with the migration and border authorities. This cooperation already dates back to 2004 when the first official and productive contact was established within the Budapest Process, an inter-governmental dialogue on migration gathering European, Central Asian and Silk Routes countries. Since 2009, the migration and labour authorities of Kyrgyzstan became also active participants of the Prague Process, an inter-governmental dialogue covering Europe and Central Asia. Joint efforts exist within the EU BOMCA programme, the ongoing phase 10 of which includes also Afghanistan.
The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding once more, stresses the importance of this long-standing cooperation between both parties.