Kazakh president says country’s foreign policy strategy must be ‘updated’

ISTANBUL

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Wednesday said his country’s foreign policy and national security strategy must be “updated.”

“We need new ways to ensure national security. For that, the relevant strategy should be revised according to the needs of the times. The concept of foreign policy should also be updated,” Tokayev said during an expanded government meeting in the capital Astana on socio-economic development.

Expressing that these documents were adopted in “a completely different geopolitical context,” Tokayev said a lot has changed since then, and that “maintaining internal security, strengthening defense capabilities, increasing the international reputation of Kazakhstan and the entire Central Asian region” should be the country’s priorities.

Tokayev also said he ordered his government to update the country’s official 2050 strategy “taking into account recent global trends,” and that it should define long-term socio-economic and socio-political goals.

“As an oil and gas producing country, Kazakhstan should adapt to the new geo-economic situation. Diversification of the economy is a need of the hour and a strategic task,” Tokayev noted.

He added that he believes Kazakhstan's 2025 Development Plan has "lost its relevance," which brings about the necessity to develop a new document in which the country's medium-term goals and objectives should be defined.

In 2012, then-President Nursultan Nazarbayev announced Kazakhstan's "2050 Strategy," which envisioned establishing the country in the top 30 most developed in the world through seven long-term priorities concerning policies in the political, economic, and social spheres.

Meanwhile, Kazakhstan's 2025 Development Plan, which outlined the country's medium-term priorities and development goals, was adopted in March 2021 to supplement the "2050 Strategy."