Exclusive | Kazakhstan sees more ‘close coordination’ with China in platforms like UN, SCO

Senior Kazakh diplomat says Astana aims to take ties between Central Asia and China to ‘a new level’ when it hosts regional summit next year

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Alibek Kuantyrov, deputy foreign minister of Kazakhstan, says the relationship with China is “stronger than ever”. Photo: Handout

Published: 9:30pm, 10 Oct 2024

Astana will keep working closely with Beijing in multilateral frameworks and aims to take ties between Central Asia and China to “a new level” when it hosts a regional summit next year, a senior Kazakh diplomat says.

Alibek Kuantyrov, deputy foreign minister of Kazakhstan, said the country expects its “close coordination” with China to continue within platforms like the United Nations and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

“Our shared commitment to regional peace, security and development is central to this partnership, and we believe it serves the long-term interests of both Kazakhstan and China,” he said in an interview on Monday.

Astana hosted the annual SCO summit in July, when Belarus was formally accepted as the 10th member of the security organisation following Iran’s inclusion last year.

The expansion of the SCO – founded by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in 2001 – has again fuelled debate over whether the Eurasian security bloc can become a counterweight to Western alliances such as Nato.

Kuantyrov said the SCO and Nato had different areas of cooperation, noting that the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation was not a military alliance. “I think we should not compare Nato and SCO,” he added.