Kazakhstan is taking advantage of its strategic location to diversify its partners and pursue its national interests. It could yield some lessons for other middle powers on how to coexist with China, wrote David Morris, former Australian diplomat in an opinion piece
published at South China Morning Post.
Morris noted, that after decades of Russian domination as a former republic of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan’s post-independence
leader Nursultan Nazarbayev developed a strategy for a multi-vector foreign policy, seeking to benefit from engagement and cooperation with multiple partners and in overlapping regional initiatives. The new president,
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, has doubled down on Nazarbayev’s strategy.
In the context of this strategy Kazakhstan has sought closer links with the United States and European Union, including as a member of the Nato Partnership for Peace. It joined the Organization of Turkic States. It also enthusiastically joined the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union and was the location where President Xi Jinping unveiled his ambitious
Belt and Road Initiative.
When it comes to the initiative, Kazakhstan has bent it to its own interests, the former diplomat argued. "It offers an opportunity to diversify away from its traditional dependence on Russia. Rather than replacing one dependency with another, Kazakhstan has aligned belt and road projects with its own domestic infrastructure development plan."
Under this plan, Kazakhstan seeks to leverage its
oil and gas resources to develop processing industries and invest in its minerals and manufacturing and production capacity in other industries.
