“This year, Kazakhstan is chairing the Collective Security Treaty Organization. The upcoming summit in Astana will be an important event in strengthening regional security and stability. Our country is aimed at comprehensively supporting joint efforts aimed at peacefully ensuring collective security and maintaining friendly ties between the member states. I would also like to note the impressive results of the historic BRICS summit in Kazan. This forum became possible thanks to the personal efforts and authority of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, Russia's effective chairmanship in this association, representing the interests of more than 45 percent of the world's population," President Tokayev wrote in his article.
Beginning the article, he noted that relations between Kazakhstan and Russia serve as an example of strong and unbreakable friendship. The countries’ strategic partnership and alliance are based on close historical and cultural ties, as well as shared responsibility for the future of the two peoples. Despite unprecedented global challenges, the countries are setting an example of good neighborliness and multifaceted cooperation. Such cooperation is based on common interests, mutual respect, and constructive political dialogue at a high level.
He notes that regular contacts are maintained with President Putin, distinguished by frankness, efficiency, and mutual respect. This allows them to promptly resolve emerging issues and strengthen the truly friendly nature of relations between the states.
"Over the past year alone, the President of Russia and I have held full-scale negotiations four times, met on the sidelines of international events and talked on the phone. Thanks to the efforts of the governments and business representatives of the two countries, trade and economic cooperation between Kazakhstan and Russia is steadily gaining momentum. Currently, 23 thousand Russian companies are fruitfully operating in Kazakhstan, 4 thousand were opened in the last year alone, which indicates the high dynamics of our cooperation. The volume of mutual investments is also consistently increasing. In 2023, Russian companies invested more than $3 billion in Kazakhstan, and Kazakhstan invested the same amount in the Russian economy. Our countries are creating all the necessary conditions to support investors, providing a comfortable environment for doing business," reads the article.
The article provides data on the work of the two countries in energy, industry, transport and logistics, agriculture and other industries. More than 90 projects worth more than $18 billion have been implemented, and another 49 are currently at the implementation stage.
The President outlined the start of construction of three thermal power plants in Kazakhstan, the modernization of the Ekibastuz State District Power Plant, initiatives for gasification in the regions, and increasing the volume of transit of Russian energy resources in the southern and eastern directions.
“Astana and Moscow are working fruitfully within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union, which today has become an important mechanism for integration in the Eurasian space and has gained international authority. By the way, the Treaty on the Establishment of the Eurasian Economic Union turned ten years old this year. As the initiators and founders of this association, Kazakhstan and Russia have sought from the very beginning to consistently strengthen comprehensive cooperation in order to increase competitiveness at the global level. Over the past time, the EAEU has proven its effectiveness as one of the most important platforms where the process of integrating the economic policies of the participating countries and developing mutual trade is successfully implemented,” reads the article.
Putin’s visit to Kazakhstan, the President writes, will be a particularly important event in the history of Kazakh-Russian relations.
“This visit has the highest interstate status, emphasizing the special importance of the strategic partnership between our countries. During the upcoming meeting with the President of Russia in Astana, we will discuss a wide range of issues related to cooperation in the trade and economic, transport and logistics, fuel and energy, and scientific and technical fields. We also plan to discuss further interaction within the framework of international organizations and integration structures, as well as exchange views on the global situation, which, unfortunately, has become critical in its tension,” the president writes.
He notes that “we, in Kazakhstan, always remember that our countries are united by the longest land border in the world. In our opinion, this is the border of eternal friendship and genuine good-neighborliness. It is also extremely important that about 32 million people live in the border regions on both sides. The regions of the two countries make a significant contribution to strengthening our interstate relations,” reads the article.
Photo source: picture from an open source