Alwaght-
presidential election of Kazakhstan will be hold prematurely
on
26 April, while there are many buts and ifs about the possible changes in foreign policy of Kazakhstan in the years to come.
Making
attempts to carry through the economic reforms, and keeping
up with sovereignty of secular thoughts based on Western culture and making efforts to maintain balance between regional and trans-regional cooperation make up the priorities
of the internal and foreign politics of Kazakhstan.
One of the strategic goals of Kazakhstan asserted
in official documents as well as in presidential speeches is to promote the economic status of the country compared to countries of the Central Asia, and rank in the first twenty investee countries of the world and one of the 50 developed and advanced countries of
the next decade.
For this purpose, in
addition to domestic
economic reforms, Kazakhstan has gone through coordinated
measures in its foreign policy. Making deals and
signing strategic contracts and treaties with relatively incongruent international powers such as Russia, the United States, China and some European countries are in line with such long term economic goals and also deriving
benefits from economic capacity of those countries which back
up the claim that Kazakhstan seeks to create balance and achieve independence from classic domination of Russia on Kazakhstan.
However, the approach does not mean that Kazakhstan seeks to avoid Russia and totally incline
towards the West.
In the policy
of balance of powers in
Kazakhstan, simultaneous cooperation with the
US and the West in one hand, and Russia and China on the other hand, clearly each side seeks to achieve its specific goals. In a way that West and the US look to extend their penetration up to the Russian and Chinese borders. On
the other hand, China and Russia are the strategic partner of the country in both bilateral and multilateral ties in active regional and international organizations such as Shanghai Cooperation Organization that work for common regional goals.
Therefore, what can
justify the long run foreign policy of Kazakhstan about maintaining balance at relationship with powers and superpowers is the ability to secure national interests,
and to obtain
the benefits of economic relationships with these countries.
Therefore,
it seems that Kazakhstan’s policy of balance of powers is a grand strategy for developing simultaneous relationships with China, Russia, the European Union and the United
States. Nazarbayev, the
president of Kazakhstan,
has frequently declared that during its cooperation with the United States, Kazakhstan
has never acted against Russia’s interests, and
similarly in its cooperation with China and Russia, will not act against the interests
of the EU or US.
It
is noteworthy that, Nazarbayev in his policy of balance of powers inclines towards the
West; however, is not affected by anti-Iranian propaganda or the West’s Iran-phobia projects. Over the
past years, it has established strong
economic ties with Iran.
Both countries have stressed
on developing bilateral
relations, the most important of which were Kazakhstan’s hosting the nuclear talks and its facilitating role at resolution of the Iran’s nuclear issue and also taking
many practical steps in this regard.
Considering
the high economic potentials in Kazakhstan, the country is of prime
importance for Iran and the Iranian companies. As Yerlan Idrisov Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan,
in his visit with Mohamad Javad
Zarif stated that
"we hope to develop the business and economic cooperation between Iran and Kazakhstan, as Iran is an important player in economic areas and road construction".
Regarding
the persistence
of the ruling elites, and the authoritarian system to substitute Nazarbayev and also sustained efforts to continue rebuilding available institutions based on Western model in a secular fashion, we
may conclude that it is unlikely that immature presidential elections
lead to serious reconsideration of multidimensional foreign policy of
Kazakhstan.
