About: Kazakhstan Archives

New candidates have emerged for the 9 June presidential elections in Kazakhstan, which take place after the first president of the country, Nursultan Nazarbayev, surprisingly resigned on 19 March. But many observers believe the long-serving leader is still calling the shots.

Kazakhstan’s ruling Nur Otan party unanimously nominated on Tuesday (23 April) Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as its candidate for the 9 June presidential election. The first President of the country Nursultan Nazarbayev said he had planned this move for years.

Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev set on Tuesday (9 April) the date for the early presidential election for 9 June and said the vote was “absolutely needed” to ensure “continuity, predictability and stability” after the long-serving President Nursultan Nazarbayev resigned.

The next round of talks under the so-called Astana Process will take place next month, and there is a growing international interest for this forum, First Deputy of the Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan Mukhtar Tileuberdi told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview.

A senior official from Kazakhstan, one of the five members of the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), has called for greater cooperation between EEAU and the EU, ultimately aiming to create a single economic space from the Atlantic to Pacific. But a Commission spokesperson made clear it could only be a long-term goal, depending on political developments.

The President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev has re-shuffled the cabinet, appointed a new foreign minister and given this ministry new powers and responsibilities, especially for attracting new foreign investment. 

The EU is taking seriously the idea expressed recently by the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev for holding a four-way summit to defuse global tensions, an EU diplomat told an audience on Tuesday (4 December).

The European Union is expected to define its strategy for Central Asia in early 2019. A preparatory meeting between the EU and the foreign ministers of the five Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan) took place in Brussels on Friday (23 November).

The president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has warned of a risk to post-World War II order and proposed that his country host a conference of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2020 with the purpose of “updating” the 1975 Helsinki Final Act of the then CSCE.

There is nothing to be feared from putting in place visa facilitation for Kazakh citizens.

The Council of Europe’s Venice Commission has provided precious support to the process of constitutional and legislative change in Kazakhstan, writes Igor Rogov.

On the sidelines of the Europe-Asia ASEM summit, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev discussed deepening bilateral cooperation, including the setting up of a future EU-Kazakhstan Business forum.

Religious dialogue in the service of peace is a brainchild of the President of Kazakhstan, inspired by the visit of Pope John Paul II to Kazakhstan in September 2001, a Catholic priest who helped organize the visit told EURACTIV.

Marek Halter, a Jew and Holocaust survivor, used the Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions to warn Europeans that there is a high risk that fascists campaigning on the Islamophobia ticket win big in next year's European elections.

Kazakhstan got praise today (10 October) for hosting for the sixth time the Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, which traditionally issues messages of peace, mutual respect and tolerance. A few religious leaders however defended their countries controversial policies.

Kazakhstan has succeeded where the EU has failed - creating a society based on multiculturalism, Saginaty Berdaulova told EURACTIV in an interview.

In recent years, many thousands have died and millions more had to flee their homes due to conflicts in which religion has been used to justify discrimination and violence. Countering these dangerous distortions is one of the challenges that religious leaders will address in Astana on 10 and 11 October, writes Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

When he looks back on his youth in China's far-west Xinjiang region, Akikat Kaliolla, an ethnic Kazakh, recalls the place's natural beauty and the big, colourful weddings typical of his majority-Muslim community.  

EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini on Wednesday (5 September) announced a new €2 million programme that will train and educate Afghan women in Kazakhstan.

29 August was chosen by the United Nations to commemorate the anniversary of the closure of the Semapalatinsk nuclear test site, and to promote the initiative for a nuclear weapon-free world, writes the Astana Times in an editorial article.

Leaders of the five Caspian littoral states met on Sunday (12 August) for the Fifth Caspian Summit in Kazakhstan's port city Aktau to sign a landmark declaration determining the legal status of the Caspian Sea and aiming to end the legal limbo over its resource-rich waters.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a development strategy proposed by the Chinese government which focuses on connectivity and cooperation between Eurasian countries. BRI largely replicates the Silk Road, a common historical heritage of China, Kazakhstan and all countries along its path.

The “Astana International Financial Centre” or AIFC, was inaugurated today (5 July) at a lavish ceremony in the Kazakh capital.