Whereas talking on the twenty fifth St Petersburg Worldwide Financial Discussion board, Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev spoke out towards the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine and the Kremlin’s help for pro-Moscow separatist actions in a number of former Soviet republics.

Kazakhstan, which has adopted a multi-vector overseas coverage underneath Tokayev, has tried to keep up a fragile stability between the West and Russia. Tokayev mentioned his authorities wouldn’t, underneath any circumstances, acknowledge Donetsk and Luhansk, the 2 japanese areas of Ukraine which might be principally underneath the management of Russia’s occupying armed forces, as unbiased republics.

“Fashionable worldwide legislation is the UN Constitution. However, two ideas of the UN got here into contradiction – the territorial integrity of the state and the fitting of a nation to self-determination. Since these ideas contradict one another, there are totally different interpretations of them. If the fitting of countries to self-determination have been really carried out throughout the globe, then as an alternative of the 193 states that now make up the UN, there could be greater than 500 or 600 states on Earth. Naturally, it could be chaos. … In all chance, this precept might be utilized to quasi-states, which, in our opinion, embrace Luhansk and Donetsk.” mentioned Tokayev.

He later defined that Kazakhstan couldn’t put itself right into a state of affairs whereby it could formally acknowledge comparable breakaway areas, together with Taiwan and Kosovo, in addition to Georgia’s areas of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, each of which have been occupied by Russia because the early Nineteen Nineties.

Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly requested Kazakhstan to affix the Russian occupation forces in Ukraine, however Kazakhstan flatly refused. Previous to the beginning of the invasion, the Kazakh authorities refused to acknowledge Donetsk and Luhansk, identified collectively because the Donbass, as unbiased states and dominated out the opportunity of deploying peacekeeping forces, regardless of Russia’s stern demand that Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic, observe Moscow’s orders.

Six days after Russia’s full-scale warfare towards Ukraine started on February 24, Tokayev provided to mediate peace talks. Because the begin of the warfare, Tokayev has held conversations with Putin and has urged him to discover a peaceable compromise with Ukraine.

Whereas sharing the St. Petersburg stage with Putin on the plenary session on June 17, Tokayev slammed quite a few Russian lawmakers, noting that they made “completely incorrect statements about Kazakhstan, inaccurate statements from, so to talk, journalists and even artists”. “I’m grateful to Vladimir Putin, who at this time has comprehensively set out the place of the highest management (in) the Kremlin in relation to Kazakhstan, and different international locations, however particularly to my nation.”

Tokayev’s feedback have been directed at a number of outstanding members of the Russian Duma and a number of the Kremlin’s most-favored journalists. Echoing Putin’s irredentist statements about Ukraine’s internationally-recognized independence, Russian pundits have often and brazenly questioned the validity of Kazakhstan’s personal nationhood, together with making baseless neo-imperialist territorial claims towards the nation and spreading false rumors that the federal government of Kazakhstan discriminates towards Russian audio system; the identical cliched accusation that Russia’s state-run propaganda levies towards any former ex-Soviet state that formulates a coverage that differs from Moscow’s.

Kazakhstan is roughly the identical measurement as Europe and is house to shut to 19 million individuals from dozens of various nationalities, practically 30% of which aren’t ethnic Kazakhs. Every group and confession enjoys equal rights and Russian is constitutionally a co-official language alongside Kazakh, with the previous serving because the lingua franca for a lot of the nation’s inhabitants.

In a latest tirade by Kremlin-backed journalist Tigran Keosayan, Kazakhstan was accused of being ungrateful to Russia after it cancelled a Could 9 Victory Day parade. Keosayan hinted that the federal government ought to “look rigorously at what is occurring in Ukraine”, which was interpreted as a thinly veiled risk towards the Kazakh state. Keosayan, who’s the husband of Margarita Simonyan, the sanctioned pro-Kremlin firebrand and chief editor of RT (previously Russia At this time), advised that Kazakhstan was ungrateful to Russia after Moscow despatched troops to the Kazakh capital Nur-Sultan as a part of a Collective Safety Treaty Group (CTSO) contingent underneath efforts to quell violent riots in January.

“In Russia, some individuals (have) distorted this complete state of affairs, asserting that Russia supposedly ‘saved’ Kazakhstan, and we must always now eternally ‘serve and bow all the way down to the ft’ of Russia,” Tokayev commented to Russian information outlet Rossiya 24. “I consider that these are completely unjustified arguments which might be removed from actuality … Certainly, we shouldn’t have any points that may be agitated in a technique or one other and which sows discord between our peoples and causes injury to our individuals and to the Russian Federation. I do not likely perceive these statements. I don’t actually perceive why these people, who in some unusual method, touch upon the choices made by the Kazakh management or the occasions going down in our nation,” Tokayev pressured.

He acknowledged that the discussion board is going down in a state of affairs of elevated political and financial turbulence. “World shocks related to the pandemic and rising geopolitical tensions have led to a brand new actuality. Globalization has been changed by an period of regionalization, with all its virtues and inherent flaws. The method of reformatting conventional financial fashions and commerce routes is accelerating. The world is altering quickly. Sadly, typically, not for the higher.”

Instantly after leaving the previous Russian imperial capital, Tokayev visited Tehran the place he held talks with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. The 2 international locations agreed to extend and strengthen mutual commerce, and enhance financial cooperation in transport, logistics, manufacturing, and agriculture, and increase cultural and humanitarian ties.

New Kazakhstan

Earlier on the St. Petersburg Financial Discussion board, Tokayev additionally referred to a state-wide referendum the place many of the residents of Kazakhstan accepted the adoption of amendments to the nation’s structure, a transfer that the majority observers consider will decide the way forward for the Central Asian nation.

Kazakhstan’s ongoing large-scale political and financial reforms are aimed toward revamping the nation’s public administration in an effort to push for financial progress and enhance the general well-being of its residents. Since turning into president in 2019, Tokayev has pushed for sustainable growth, in addition to deepening Kazakhstan’s commerce and financial relations by the opening of recent manufacturing amenities and selling the creation of circumstances for progress in each human capital and improvements.

Regional cooperation and commerce

Tokayev known as the strengthening of the potential of the Eurasian Financial Union (EAEU) an pressing process. “For my part, it could be acceptable and helpful to work out a brand new commerce technique inside the EAEU taking into consideration the brand new actuality. As an alternative of counter-sanctions, that are unlikely to be productive, we must always pursue a extra lively and versatile commerce coverage with a large protection of Asian and Center Jap markets,” he mentioned whereas including that Kazakhstan has no intention of breaking the Western sanctions that have been imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

“We can not violate them, particularly as a result of we obtain warnings about potential so-called secondary sanctions towards our economic system from the West if we did violate the sanctions,” Tokayev added. “However I wish to stress that we proceed working with the Russian authorities, I’d say in an intensified method, and attain essential agreements whereas not violating the sanctions,” he mentioned.

Tokayev additionally pressured that Kazakhstan will nonetheless adhere to its duties as an ally of Russia, together with by membership within the Russian-led Eurasian Financial Union and the Collective Safety Treaty Group, Moscow’s reply to the European Union and NATO.

One other precedence, Tokayev mentioned, was additional enlargement of commerce and financial cooperation with third international locations…Due to this fact, Tokayev didn’t rule out the prospect that within the coming decade historically pleasant international locations comparable to China, India, the Center East, South and Southeast Asia, might turn out to be main buyers within the economies of the area.

“China has already turn out to be Kazakhstan’s major financial and overseas commerce accomplice. This nation has already invested over $22 billion in our economic system over the previous 15 years. Deepening multilateral cooperation with China is a particularly necessary process for our nation.”

Inexperienced Investments

Turning to local weather change, Tokayev mentioned there are alternatives to increase progress of inexperienced investments and to unravel environmental issues, in line with Qazaq Inexperienced Affiliation.

“We plan to constantly increase alternatives for the expansion of inexperienced investments and implementation of the related tasks,” he mentioned.

Tokayev famous that environmental issues have a worldwide nature and have affected virtually each nation on the earth, together with Kazakhstan. Kazakh farmers suffered from drought final 12 months attributable to low rainfall and shallow rivers. Tokayev recalled the essential situation of the Ural (Zhaiyk) River basin ecosystem, which traverses Kazakhstan and Russia.

Kazakhstan joined the 2015 Paris Settlement on August 2, 2016, and pledged to attain carbon neutrality by 2060.

“I consider that such long-term challenges to the sustainable growth of our states must be addressed collectively. I believe we must always critically contemplate the prospects of introducing the ideas of a round economic system. We’re engaged on decreasing the vitality depth of GDP, increasing the renewable vitality sector and decreasing transit losses on this sector,” Tokayev added.