As part of the state visit of Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to Russia on November 12, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Tokayev signed the Declaration on the Transition of Interstate Relations between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan to the Level of Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and Alliance.
An extensive package of intergovernmental agreements was also signed to expand Kazakh-Russian cooperation in security policy, trade, investment, culture, and humanitarian affairs.
Following their talks, Putin and Tokayev made statements for the media.
Putin said that for Russia, Kazakhstan is one of the biggest trade partners within the Commonwealth of Independent States and across the Eurasian space in general. Last year, Kazakh-Russian trade reached $28.7 billion, a fifth of Kazakhstan’s foreign trade.
“As for the share of national currencies in mutual settlements, it already exceeds 96 percent, which enables us to make our business transactions immune to negative external impacts, including political factors,” Putin said.
Russia is a leading investor in Kazakhstan, with cumulative capital investments totalling approximately $10 billion.
Bilateral energy cooperation is steadily advancing. The majority of Kazakhstan’s oil exports transit through Russia, while Russian oil is shipped via Kazakhstan to markets in Asia.
“Russia and Kazakhstan are connected by a network of key Eurasian transport routes. Our countries are working to increase the capacity of automobile border crossings, while freight traffic by air and water is expanding, including across the Caspian Sea and along the Irtysh River,” Putin said, adding that significant new prospects are emerging with the development of the International North-South Transport Corridor, which runs from Russia to the Indian Ocean. The eastern branch of this route crosses Kazakhstan before connecting to Turkmenistan and Iran.
For his part, Tokayev said that Russia is Kazakhstan’s key trade, economic and investment partner. “The 2024 trade amounted to about $28 billion, and in the eight months of this year it exceeded $17 billion. We have set the goal of bringing bilateral trade to $30 billion.”
According to Tokayev, in 2024, Russia became the largest investor in Kazakhstan by increasing its investments to the record $4 billion. Kazakhstan’s investments in Russia are also rising, totaling about $9 billion over 15 years.
“We put a special focus on cooperation in the transit and transport sectors. We agreed to continue consistently expanding the capacity of projects such as the International North–South Transport Corridor, the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, and the Ayagoz–Bakhty and Dostyk–Moiynty railway lines. We emphasized the importance of improving cross-border logistics infrastructure and streamlining procedures at border checkpoints,” the Kazakh president said.
On the same day, Putin and Tokayev took part, via videoconference, in the plenary session of the 21st Russia-Kazakhstan Interregional Cooperation Forum, held in Uralsk, Kazakhstan.
The forum brought together the heads of Russian and Kazakhstani regions and businesspeople. It was noted that interregional ties are a solid foundation for the entire complex of bilateral relations. They span a wide range of areas, including the economy, trade, energy, transport, agriculture, and digital technology. Overall, 76 of the 89 regions of the Russian Federation maintain direct contacts with all 17 regions of Kazakhstan.
Photo: akorda.kz
