The Defence Section was established within the British Embassy on 16 July 2001. Kazakhstan appointed a Defence Attache to London in the autumn of 2001.

The Defence Attache is Lieutenant Colonel Fitzgibbon. He is the personal representative of the United Kingdoms Chief of Defence Staff. He is supported by his assistant Sgt John Agnew of the Royal Air Forces and Ms Olga Protassova and Mr Vladimir Vorobyev. Their responsibilities include the following:

• provision of timely and accurate military advice to Her Majesty's Ambassador;
• development of military relations between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Kazakhstan;
• co-ordination of visits by high ranking officials;
• co-ordination of other bilateral activities.

Defence Relations

• the Minister of Defence of the Republic of Kazakhstan paid his first official visit to the United Kingdom in January 2003 and had high level meetings with the Secretary of State for Defence, members of Parliament and senior military figures;
• in September 2007 the Under Secretary of State for Defence of the United Kingdom, Mr Derek Twigg, visited Kazakhstan. Discussions were held with the new Kazakh Defence Minister, Mr Akhmetov, and Mr Twigg also visited Kazakh and British troops participating on Exercise Steppe Eagle;
• British forces have participated in the annual Exercise Steppe Eagle since 2004. The aim of the exercise is to train and assess KAZBRIG, which consists of a Brigade HQ and 2 infantry battalions, in its ability to conduct Peace Support Operations, working within a multinational framework;
• the United Kingdom/ Kazakhstan Bilateral Co-operation Working Group held its inaugural meeting in Almaty in March 2003 and continues to meet annually to determine the Defence Relations Activities Programme.

The UK is looking forward to developing our mutual defence relationship in the following areas:

• continuing co-operation with the Airmobile Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan;
• the training of Kazakh instructors at the British Military Advisory and Training Team (BMATT) location in Vyskov, Czech Republic.