The Kazakh President’s First Trip to Turkey Was Actually Pretty Important
This was a crucial development that the rest of the world should pay more attention to if they want to obtain a better grasp of the global systemic transition to multipolarity.
The world has been so focused on the Ukrainian Conflict and attempts to replicate it in East Asia through Taiwan that few noticed that Kazakh President Tokayev just paid his first trip to Turkey earlier this week that was actually pretty important in hindsight. It comes after the Russian-led CSTO limited peacekeeping mission there succeeded in stopping the country’s terrorist takeover in early January, which some Russian-friendly observers wrongly predicted would make Kazakhstan the Kremlin’s puppet state. They also claimed that Turkey was allegedly behind that Hybrid War attack, which was also fake news. Both false assessments were completely discredited by this week’s trip.
Their 50-paragraph joint statement is officially described as enhancing their strategic partnership and deserves to at least be skimmed by interested observers in order to appreciate just how comprehensive it is. Of particular interest is paragraph 18’s commitment to expanding cooperation along the Middle Corridor, which describes the trans-Caucasus/-Caspian/-Central Asian connectivity network linking Turkey with China. It’s a vital artery of Beijing’s Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) that’s become all the more strategic after the Eurasian Land Bridge between China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, and the EU was essentially severed by the US-led West’s unprecedented anti-Russian sanctions in recent months.
Their joint statement was importantly followed by news that they reached a deal for Kazakhstan to co-produce Turkey’s Anka drones. This removes any doubt whatsoever about the fact that the Central Asian state certainly doesn’t see its West Asian Turkic civilizational partner as a security threat otherwise it would never enter into such privileged military cooperation with it. Those who continue to insist otherwise are clinging to discredited fake news narratives for reasons that only they can account for if publicly challenged by their audience to do so. Simply put, the Alt-Media Community’s (AMC) prevailing narrative of January’s events attributing them to Turkish intelligence was flat-out false.
So too, it must be reminded, was their wishful thinking that Kazakhstan would become a Russian puppet state after Moscow saved this neighboring country from a terrorist takeover. Not only did that not turn out like they expected, but Kazakhstan has actually signaled that it regards Turkey of all countries as among its most privileged strategic partners in all respects, especially in terms of connectivity and military-technical cooperation. That just goes to show that Central Asia is truly multipolar in the sense that no single pole of influence like Russia exerts dominance over that geostrategic region, nor does Moscow aspire to for that matter.
Foreign Minister Lavrov confirmed his country’s pragmatic respect of its strategic partners’ multipolar interests in an article that he recently wrote for Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the main point of which was then reaffirmed by Federation Council Speaker Matvienko on Thursday just days after the joint Kazakh-Turkish statement was published and news about their drone co-production deal was revealed. She emphasized that Russia doesn’t regard Central Asia as an arena of geopolitical struggle, which is contrary to what some of its foreign sympathizers in the AMC have wrongly claimed over the years and especially since January.
President Tokayev’s trip to Turkey was therefore extremely important because it confirmed several things. First, Kazakhstan doesn’t regard Turkey as a security threat. Second, it actually sees it as a privileged comprehensive strategic partner. Third, their expanded cooperation on connectivity and military-technical matters testifies to their trust-based ties. Fourth, Russia’s calm reaction to this development shows its maturity as a Great Power. And finally, Central Asia has truly become multipolar. The takeaway is that this was a crucial development that the rest of the world should pay more attention to if they want to obtain a better grasp of the global systemic transition to multipolarity.
