Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on November 12 reaffirmed the Central Asian country’s close ties with Russia as he paid a state visit to Moscow. Vladimir Putin received Tokayev at the Kremlin just days after the Kazakh leader and four other presidents of Central Asia met Donald Trump at the White House.

Following extended talks and an informal two-and-a-half-hour dinner, Tokayev and Putin signed a joint declaration elevating bilateral relations to what both sides termed a “comprehensive strategic partnership and alliance.”

Tokayev described the agreement as heralding “a new era” in Kazakhstan–Russia cooperation and said of his visit to Moscow: “For us, this state visit to the Russian Federation is perhaps the main event of this year.”

During his time at the White House, Tokayev was the most fulsome of the Central Asian presidents in lavishing praise on Trump as US leader, saying: "You are a great leader, a statesman sent from above to restore common sense and the traditions that we all share and value."

Trump pledged to strengthen US relations with the countries of Central Asia “like never before”.

Putin and Tokayev at their meeting discussed cooperation in energy and logistics.

"We agreed to strengthen our partnership in the areas of oil, oil products, coal, and electricity production, transportation, and supply," Tokayev said after his time with Putin. "We discussed in detail the prospects for gas cooperation, in particular gas supply to Kazakhstan’s regions bordering Russia, as well as transit to third countries."

At a Kazakh-Russian interregional business forum held concurrently in the northwestern Kazakh city of Oral (Uralsk), officials unveiled 29 joint projects valued at approximately $30.8bn, covering sectors including energy, logistics and manufacturing.
The Kremlin characterised the meeting as highly productive and backed by mutual trust, noting the “trust-based” atmosphere between the two leaders. 

The upgraded partnership agreement is part of Kazakhstan’s careful balancing act between deepening cooperation with Russia – its largest trading partner and ally in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) – and pursuing broader engagement with Western countries.

Analysts say the Moscow visit reflects Astana’s strategy of multi-vector diplomacy, reaffirming alliances such as with Russia and China while keeping open channels with the US and Europe amid increasing global polarisation.

The five presidents of Central Asia last week held talks with Trump as part of the C5+1 summit. Tokayev described those talks as the "beginning of a new era of interaction between the United States and Central Asia". 

When asked to comment on Tokayev’s praise of Trump and Kazakh-US relations, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reportedly dismissed the issue as “nothing unusual”, referring to Tokayev’s comments as a form of standard procedure for an official visit to the US, and remarking that “a great many people who end up visiting the White House start talking like that.”