Belgium (Brussels, Morning Newspaper) Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev met in Astana on April 10 to agree on steps to promote further bilateral and regional cooperation.
Perhaps the most significant result was their agreement to leverage the full capacity of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), also known as the Middle Corridor, which runs from China to Europe through Central Asia and South Caucasus. “The full deployment of [its] potential,” said Tokayev, “is of particular importance.”
Since gaining independence in 1991, Kazakhstan has pursued a multi-vector foreign policy aimed at maintaining balance between major outside powers while also advancing its own national interests. This pragmatic foreign-policy approach, pioneered by Tokayev as the country’s foreign minister and then prime minister throughout the 1990s and 2000s, has allowed it to thread the needle between Russia and China while at the same time deepening its ties to the West as well as to other Asian powers and regional players, including Azerbaijan.
Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan play key geopolitical and economic roles in their respective regions. Kazakhstan has the highest gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in Central Asia. In the South Caucasus, Azerbaijan has one and a half times the GDPs of Armenia and Georgia combined, as well as one and a half times their joint population. Both Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are economic powerhouses of their respective regions with vast energy resources and a stable political climate making them attractive partners for regional and global powers.
The latest bilateral meeting between them follows the 2021 transformation of the Turkic Council, founded in 2009, into the Organization of Turkic States (OTS). Kazakhstan’s diplomacy was the driving force behind the original foundation of the Council, of which Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan were charter members along with Kyrgyzstan and Turkey and which was initially established as a modest platform for dialogue and cooperation.
A week before the summit of the two presidents, a trade and economic mission took place in Baku where more than 20 Kazakh companies operating in food-production, metallurgical, information-technology, chemical, construction, and engineering sectors signed contracts worth $55 million with Azerbaijani enterprises. On the basis of its success, the Kazakhstan-Azerbaijan Intergovernmental Commission met in Baku and discussed details of diversifying their cooperation beyond oil and gas sectors.
A key to that diversification is further implementation of the Middle Corridor. The two countries are strategically located with rail networks that, taken together, extend from China to Europe. The bilateral “Comprehensive Program for the Development of Cooperation” for 2022 –2026 set out a series of projects for augmenting the existing infrastructural connections between the two countries, to increase the corridor’s transit capacity by up to 10 million tons per year.
Azerbaijan’s strategic location along the East-West energy corridor enables its role as an important transit hub for oil and gas supplies connecting Europe and Asia. The further development of this role, and its extension beyond the energy sector to a whole spectrum of potential Middle Corridor commodities, depends upon the integration of what its known as the “Zangezur multi-modal corridor” (or shortly, the “Zangezur corridor”). Armenia appears to have committed itself to allowing access to this transport route by signing the November 2020 ceasefire agreement with Azerbaijan over the Second Karabakh War, but has dragged its feet on the matter ever since.
The creation of the OTS, like that of the original Turkic Council, was the result of Kazakhstan’s diplomatic initiatives. It was a natural development from the Turkic Council’s evolution over the years into a more comprehensive organization encompassing economic, cultural, educational and security affairs. The highest-level Samarkand Declaration of the OTS in November 2022 underlined the main accomplishments during that evolution and set out the principal directions of its further development.
Kazakhstan’s deepening relations with Azerbaijan amplify the “Turkic vector” in its foreign policy. The development of their bilateral relations continues to transform Central Eurasia’s geopolitics and geoeconomics. Both countries recognize the need to cooperate for regional stability and energy exploitation in the Caspian Sea. Kazakhstan has pledged to increase oil transit across the sea to Azerbaijan for insertion into the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) export pipeline, while Azerbaijani companies will also aid in developing Kazakhstan’s offshore resources.
As the ties between the two countries deepen, they play an increasingly influential role in shaping the regional landscape. The ongoing integration of transport, energy, and communication networks, along with the strengthening of political and security cooperation, will serve to enhance the strategic importance of both countries. This will contribute to regional stability and prosperity while laying the foundation for further integration and collaboration.
The deepening bilateral ties between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are at the heart of Central Eurasia’s dynamic geoeconomics, reshaping the regional geopolitical landscape. These stronger ties align with Kazakhstan’s national interests and President Tokayev’s larger foreign policy vision. Fostering closer relations advances strategic domestic and regional goals and enhances Kazakhstan’s international role. Under Tokayev, Kazakhstan will prioritize relationships with OTS members, especially Azerbaijan, to cooperate in energy, security, and regional development.
