Kazakhstan negotiated €160mn joint projects with Netherlands and gas transit arrangements while facing potential EU sanctions tied to Russian entities. Diplomatic engagement continued with Saudi Arabia and UN committee support for a Kazakh candidate.
Kazakhstan is the largest landlocked country in the world and the dominant economy of Central Asia, bordered by two great powers—Russia to the north and China to the east—whose competing interests shape its careful 'multi-vector' foreign policy. It operates as a presidential system, with President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev consolidating leadership following the long rule of founding president Nursultan Nazarbayev and the unrest of January 2022. It maintains close ties to Russia through bodies like the Eurasian Economic Union and CSTO while deepening economic links with China via the Belt and Road Initiative and cultivating Western and Turkic partnerships. Key fault lines for readers include its balancing act amid Western sanctions on Russia, ethnic Russian populations in the north, and managing succession-era political reform.