ISTANBUL

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Monday co-chaired the eighth meeting of the Türkiye-Kazakhstan Joint Strategic Planning Group in Ankara.

According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s official social media account, Fidan co-chaired the meeting with his Kazakh counterpart, Yermek Kosherbayev.

Following the meeting, Fidan and Kosherbayev signed the “Cooperation Plan for 2026-2027 between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Türkiye and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan,” Turkish diplomatic sources said.

Türkiye-Kazakhstan relations are conducted effectively and on a regular basis at the bilateral level through institutional mechanisms, including the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council (HLSCC), the Joint Strategic Planning Group, the Joint Economic Commission and political consultation mechanisms.

Foremost among these mechanisms was the fifth meeting of the Türkiye-Kazakhstan High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council, held in Ankara on July 29 last year under the co-chairmanship of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, during which the council’s decisions and a joint statement were signed by both leaders.

Kazakhstan is Türkiye’s leading trade partner in Central Asia, with bilateral trade totaling $8.95 billion between January and November 2025, while more than 3,000 Turkish-owned companies currently operate across various sectors in the country.

After Russia and Iraq, Kazakhstan is Türkiye’s third-largest oil supplier. Energy cooperation between the two countries focuses on oil, natural gas, renewable energy and energy logistics, while Türkiye remains one of the largest investors in Kazakhstan’s non-energy sectors, with investments totaling about $5.8 billion as of 2025.