On Tuesday in Ankara, the presidents of Kazakhstan and Türkiye conducted the fifth meeting of the Kazakhstan–Türkiye High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council. The main goal of the conference was to improve cooperation in the fields of investment, transportation, and the economy.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warmly welcomed President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, saying, “Welcome to your second homeland!”
He said that Türkiye values working with Kazakhstan very highly and that the two countries’ ties have now reached the level of a strategic partnership.
Erdogan expressed a commitment to further strengthening this positive momentum across trade, defense industry, agriculture, tourism, and culture. Highlighting Kazakhstan as one of Türkiye’s largest trading partners, he stated: “We will continue our efforts to increase trade turnover to $15 billion.”
The two leaders spoke about how strong the Kazakh–Turkish friendship is based on shared historical and spiritual values. They also said they were both committed to taking the alliance to the next level.
“We are committed to elevate our bilateral relationship to new heights…, we reaffirm our shared intention to expanding cooperation. We have both the necessary resources and strong motivation to achieve this. A comprehensive legal framework has been established between our two countries, with more than sixty treaties and agreements currently in force. Today, several additional bilateral agreements are set to be signed,” – President Tokayev stated at the Council’s meeting.
The Presidential Office of Kazakhstan said that the discussion was mostly about increasing commerce between the two countries, which reached $5 billion in 2024. Tokayev stressed that Kazakhstan is ready to provide Türkiye at least 34 different types of commodities worth around $1 billion and called for more Turkish items to be sent to Kazakhstan.
Transport and logistics were named as two important areas for working together. Tokayev said that Kazakhstan’s top objective is to establish the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route. He also said that he wanted to get Turkish investors to help build new trains, logistical centers, land ports, and shipbuilding facilities.
President Tokayev affirmed that Kazakhstan is “a reliable partner and always ready to support Turkish investors.”
We also spoke about ways to work together on energy, such as how the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline may help Kazakhstan sell more oil.
Tokayev asked Turkish businesses to help with initiatives that would help Kazakhstan’s power shortages and said he was sure that KazMunayGas and Türkiye Petroleum would work well together.
The president spoke about the new tax law in Kazakhstan and the incentives it includes, such as a royalty system to encourage more processing of raw resources. He also advised Turkish enterprises to work together to set up an investment fund and to take part in building joint ventures in the mining and natural resources industries.
Agriculture was also mentioned as an important area for development. Kazakhstan now sends one-fourth of its grain, one-third of its cotton, and more than one-fourth of its gluten to Türkiye.
President Tokayev said that there are 23 agricultural investment projects going on in Kazakhstan with Turkish help. Of them, 18 are now up and running and exporting to other countries.
A 90-day visa-free regime for Turkish people going to Kazakhstan was put in place to help tourism thrive and improve ties between the two countries in many ways.
After the negotiations, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a Joint Declaration and the Decision of the 5th meeting of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council between Kazakhstan and Turkey.
