Over the past 29 years, Kazakhstan has become a leader for peace, stability, and prosperity in Central Asia.
Kazakhstan’s Independence Day, celebrated on December 16 to commemorate the fulfillment of the Kazakh people’s long-cherished dream of having an independent state, which happened on December 16, 1991, fills every heart in Kazakhstan with pride and joy now. In Islamabad, the Kazakh Ambassador Akan Rakhmetullin, Minister for Privatisation Mohammedmian Soomro and other guests cut a cake in the Independence Day ceremony.
Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan Akan Rakhmetullin said, “Soon after we had established our diplomatic relations, Kazakhstan opened its embassy here in Islamabad in 1994, to which I became a part as a young attaché. And now I am back after 25 years as an ambassador – proud and honoured. Kazakhstan highly values good relationship with Pakistan and I will be trying my best to bring our partnership to the new qualitative level.”
Kazakhstan is the most economically successful country in Central Asia on the right track towards becoming one of the world’s 30 most developed countries by the year 2050. Kazakhstan is a democratic republic, with a developed multi-party system (the parliamentary campaign has just started with at least three parties having a strong chance to get into the parliament). Kazakhstan is one of the few countries of the former Soviet Union where the passage of power to the new president in 2019 took place peacefully and legally, because of a competitive election. A number of international leaders and organizations acknowledged the huge positive role, which the First President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, played in achieving this result by announcing his voluntary resignation on March 19, 2019.
Nazarbayev, the President of the newly established Republic of Kazakhstan, fearlessly faced the challenges. Kazakhstan preserved the industry created during the Soviet years and slowly, but steadily put it on the market track, adding a number of new, twenty first century elements. After several years of a slowdown, Kazakhstan’s metallurgical plants, its oil and gas industry and, last but not least, agriculture picked up speed. Now all of these sectors of the country’s economy by far exceed the pre-1991 levels of production. It is enough to say that the products of Kazakhstan’s highly competitive metallurgical industry are now exported to the EU, while Kazakhstan’s neighbors in Central Asia are buying its agricultural products. Diversification of industries, foreign investment sources and multivector diplomacy of Kazakhstan have also made a huge step forward. The EU (not China or Russia) is now the biggest foreign investor in Kazakhstan, and the country’s diplomats manage to maintain excellent relations with both Russia and Western countries.
Kazakhstan’s positive work in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization made it a friend of China; Kazakhstan’s active participation in the Islamic Cooperation Organization got it connected to 56 fraternal Muslim states. And the Eurasian Economic Union is becoming a vehicle of development in the triangle uniting China, Kazakhstan and the former republics of the Soviet Union. The golden rule here is just one: Kazakhstan is valuable when it is sovereign and when it is free to suggest its own solutions. They are always peaceful. 