Tokayev to sign alliance, strategic partnership declaration with Putin

Astana, Nov 11 (EFE).- Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced Tuesday that he would sign a declaration of alliance and strategic partnership with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, during his official visit to Moscow.

“The key point of my visit to Moscow will be the signing of a declaration on elevating relations between Kazakhstan and Russia to the level of a comprehensive alliance and strategic partnership,” Tokayev wrote in an article published in Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

Tokayev, who arrives in Moscow on Tuesday, made the announcement less than a week after attending in Washington the U.S.-Central Asia summit chaired by U.S. President Donald Trump.

He added that the document “will open a new era” and confirm “an unprecedented level of trust and a shared will” for closer cooperation “in all areas.”

The Kremlin confirmed that the Kazakh and Russian leaders will meet on Tuesday afternoon and hold joint government meetings on Wednesday.

“If the president of Kazakhstan considers it necessary to inform our president about the content of the contacts that took place in Washington, of course, that will be extremely interesting for the Russian side,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during his daily conference call.

Official data show that Russia is among Kazakhstan’s top three trading partners, with bilateral trade amounting to nearly $30 billion.

Russia is also one of Kazakhstan’s leading investors, with $4 billion in projects involving companies such as gas giant Gazprom and oil producer Lukoil, which is under U.S. sanctions.

Tokayev confirmed that talks will cover the construction of the country’s first nuclear power plant, to be built by Russia’s Rosatom consortium, including technology transfer and training of specialists.

For his part, Putin will brief his Kazakh counterpart on the progress of the military campaign in Ukraine, where Russian forces have made significant advances in recent weeks.

“Since gaining independence, Kazakhstan—located between two major powers, China to the east and Russia to the north—has pursued a multi-vector policy,” Kazakh political analyst Eduard Poletayev told EFE.

He added that this policy has proven effective and shown that Kazakhstan is a reliable partner.

Kazakhstan maintains close relations and commercial ties with China, the United States and the European Union, which held a summit with the five Central Asian republics in April in the historic Uzbek city of Samarkand.

During his U.S. visit, Tokayev agreed with Trump to create a joint venture between Cove Capital (70%) and Tau-Ken Samruk (30%) to develop the world’s largest untapped tungsten deposit, estimated at 410,000 tons.

Calling rare earth metals “the second oil,” Tokayev said the move aims to attract new investment, noting that Kazakhstan has significant deposits of rubidium, cesium, lithium and beryllium, as well as the world’s largest tungsten reserves and major uranium and chromium deposits.

The United States and Kazakhstan also signed a package of agreements worth more than $17 billion, including contracts for American trains, 15 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft, John Deere agricultural machinery and a rare earth mining project.

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