Economic ties are moving beyond diplomacy.
Kazakhstan and Serbia have identified nine areas for deeper cooperation as both governments turn agreements reached by their presidents into a more practical economic agenda, DKNews.kz reports.
The latest discussion took place in Belgrade between Kazakhstan’s Ambassador Bolat Imanbaev and Serbia’s Minister for International Economic Cooperation Nenad Popović, according to the [Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs] Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Nine sectors move to the centre of Kazakhstan-Serbia cooperation
The list of potential areas is unusually broad.
Popović singled out transport, construction, artificial intelligence, digitalisation and education as sectors where Serbia sees prospects for cooperation with Kazakhstan.
Imanbaev added another four priorities from the Kazakh side: agriculture, energy, tourism and healthcare.
Together, the discussions put nine sectors on the bilateral agenda. No investment volumes, project costs or implementation deadlines were announced, meaning the talks remain at the stage of defining priorities and advancing previously reached agreements.
For businesses, that distinction matters. Political support has been confirmed, but individual projects, contracts and financing mechanisms have yet to be disclosed publicly.
Belgrade returns to agreements reached by Tokayev and Vučić
The current negotiations are tied directly to two presidential visits.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev paid an official visit to Serbia on 18–19 November 2024, while Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić visited Astana on 26–27 February 2026.
The Belgrade meeting focused on how the agreements reached during those visits are being implemented.
Popović reaffirmed Serbia’s commitment to carrying out the agreements made at the highest political level. He also congratulated Kazakhstan’s leadership on the successful conduct of the Kurultai elections, according to the official statement.
The significance is increasingly economic: the bilateral dialogue is shifting from declarations about closer relations toward discussions of sectors where government agencies and businesses could work together.
AI and digitalisation keep returning to the agenda
Technology is becoming one of the recurring themes in Kazakhstan-Serbia talks.
During another round of negotiations in Belgrade on 14 August 2026, Kazakhstan and Serbia also identified digital technologies and artificial intelligence among promising areas of cooperation. Nuclear industry, agriculture, higher education and space technologies were discussed at the same time.
That August visit also involved representatives of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Kazakhstan-Serbia Business Council, putting private-sector contacts alongside government negotiations.
The repetition of AI, digitalisation, education and agriculture across several meetings shows where the two sides are concentrating their attention, even though concrete commercial deals have not yet been announced.
Serbia and Kazakhstan are already looking beyond bilateral trade
The relationship also has a wider regional dimension.
During the August talks, Serbian officials highlighted Kazakhstan’s position between Europe and Asia, while the two sides discussed Kazakhstan’s participation in EXPO 2027 in Belgrade. Serbia has shown particular interest in Astana’s experience of using infrastructure created for EXPO 2017 after the exhibition ended.
That gives the relationship another practical point of contact beyond traditional trade: Kazakhstan can bring experience from a major international exhibition, while Belgrade is preparing to host its own global event.
Following the latest meeting between Imanbaev and Popović, the two sides exchanged specific plans for the coming period, although their details were not made public.
The next test will therefore be whether the expanding list of priority sectors produces identifiable projects, investment commitments or business agreements.
Earlier, we wrote about how Serbia is studying Kazakhstan’s EXPO-2017 experience ahead of EXPO-2027 in Belgrade. Serbia is studying Kazakhstan’s EXPO-2017 experience ahead of EXPO-2027
