Relationship between the UK and Kazakhstan

Mineral-rich Kazakhstan is about the size of Western Europe. Its economic potential has been obvious for some time, but the Chinese New Silk Road initiative has brought the biggest and richest Central Asian state into new focus. Kazakhstan is right in the middle of China’s ‘one belt, one road’ and, although Russia and China may be collaborating in forums such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, they are also rivals for dominance in this former Soviet republic.

Western countries, including the US, have a more limited role given Kazakhstan’s location. But visits such as that of the Kazakh president to the UK in November 2015 have been the occasion for announcement of significant trade deals.

According to human rights organisations the repression in Kazakhstan is getting worse. Nursultan Nazarbayev won the 2015 presidential election with more than 97% of the votes, according to official results. The OECD dismissed the campaign as “largely indiscernible.”