Putin begins visit to key regional ally

The Russian leader has landed in Kazakhstan for bilateral and multilateral talks

Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Astana, Kazakhstan for a two-day state visit. He is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and take part in a session of a regional security organization.

Putin is leading a delegation of key ministers and other senior government officials. Several bilateral agreements are expected to be signed by the Russian president and Kazakh counterpart Tokayev after their negotiations on Wednesday.

Russia and Kazakhstan are close regional partners, as the two national leaders stressed in articles they penned ahead of the visit.

Writing in the Kazakhstanskaya Pravda newspaper, Putin hailed the fact that Moscow and Astana are “active supporters of Eurasian economic integration.” He identified general commerce, the oil and gas industries, nuclear power, and space launches as some of the drivers of bilateral cooperation.

Tokayev’s article, published in Izvestia, stated that Kazakhstan remains “a reliable strategic partner and ally of Russia in this difficult historic period full of conflicts and cataclysms.” 

Putin and Tokayev will also attend a meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) on Thursday. Its governing council, which consists of the leaders of member states, will sum up this year’s events and what they mean for the group. Kazakhstan currently holds the rotating presidency of the CSTO.