Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev, the head of the Kazakhstani senate, told Vestnik Kavkaza at lectures on the foreign policy of Kazakhstan at the Russian Diplomatic Academy that the country's active development of pragmatic economic and political ties with countries of the South Caucasus was effective. He noted a strong bond between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, and the transit of Azerbaijani oil to European markets through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
Kazakhstan cooperates bilaterally with Armenia within the framework of the CSTO and the Eurasian Economic Union. Tokayev reminded that Kazakhstani and Russian Presidents Nursultan Nazarbayev and Boris Yeltsin had visited Azerbaijan and Armenia in 1991 and tried to end the brewing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which the OSCE Minsk Group is currently dealing with.
The official said that Kazakhstan and Georgia were developing ties at an ambassadorial level.
Tokayev reminded that Russia and Kazakhstan had signed an agreement in 2013 on good neighbourliness and cooperation in the 21st century, which had been the basis of their alliance.
The senator summed up that Kazakhstan was sticking to a pacifistic and constructive foreign political course, hence contributing to international security.
