ASTANA  –  King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of the Belgians will take part in 14 activities across Astana and Almaty during their October 11-14 state visit to Kazakhstan, Qazinform News Agency correspondent reports, citing Akorda. The royal couple will be accompanied by a 110-member delegation of ministers, business leaders, university rectors and journalists. The royal couple will arrive today (Sunday) with the official program opening on October 12 with a welcoming ceremony at Akorda, talks in an extended format and a lunch. The first thematic stop will be the National Center for Children’s Rehabilitation in Astana, whose work spans speech therapy, Montessori education and robotics. The visit reflects a topic close to Queen Mathilde’s heart, as she studied speech therapy. The day will conclude with a state dinner. On October 13, Their Majesties will tour the National Museum of Kazakhstan, viewing halls dedicated to Kazakh history and traditions and opening an exhibition of the Belgian painter James Ensor. They will then attend a roundtable on critical minerals at Nazarbayev University, which already cooperates extensively with Belgian universities, before joining the opening of the Kazakh-Belgian Business Council. Officials will attend the opening session, while the council itself will run throughout the afternoon. The royal couple will then travel to the Alem.ai International Center for Artificial Intelligence, where they will tour TUMO Astana and meet students. Ghent University will donate a telescope to the center for use in student research. The center will also host a rectors’ forum on AI in research and education, in line with Kazakhstan’s designation of 2026 as the Year of Artificial Intelligence.

The Astana leg will close with a Belgian reception in the evening. On October 14, the delegation will fly to Almaty to visit the Institute of Nuclear Physics, which already cooperates with two Belgian companies and a Belgian university. After a cultural activity, the visit will conclude at the Almaty Museum of Arts with a dance performance by a choreographer who trained in Belgium, before the delegation departs for Belgium. Earlier, Qazinform reported that Kazakhstan and the Belgian province of Antwerp agreed to deepen cooperation in trade, investment, logistics, innovation, and digital technologies.