BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 23. Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan continue to strengthen their multifaceted strategic partnership based on historical trust, good neighborliness, and mutual support, Director of the Kazakhstan Institute of Strategic Studies Yerkin Tukumov said during the 4th meeting of the Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan Expert Council, Trend reports.
"We have been conducting an expert dialogue for four years now. It began with small steps, and today it has become a strong bridge between our fraternal peoples," he noted.
According to the analyst, economic cooperation is showing steady growth: over the past five years, trade turnover between the countries has grown almost fivefold and reached $500 million.
"This became possible thanks to the active work of government agencies and diplomatic missions. But the potential is far from exhausted," he emphasized.
Tukumov spotlighted economic reforms in Kazakhstan. The country is betting on diversification and development of non-resource exports, moving away from the previous model focused exclusively on attracting foreign investment.
"We stimulate production with high added value: the deeper the processing, the lower the taxes. This is a direct path to industrialization," Tukumov explained.
According to him, Kazakhstan plans to expand the export of non-resource goods to Azerbaijan. We are talking about 130 commodity items worth more than $340 million.
"These are already concrete steps towards high-quality economic partnership," Tukumov noted.
The cooperation also covers the sphere of transport and logistics. Over the past year, the volume of transportation along the Trans-Caspian route has grown by 62 percent, amounting to 4.5 million tons.
"Today we supply 1.4 million tons of oil via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and expect to increase this volume to 2.5 million tons in the coming years," he said.
The importance of infrastructure modernization was also emphasized. Kazakhstan has already invested more than $25 billion in logistics and the railway network. By the end of the year, it is planned to complete the construction of the second line of the Dostyk-Moiynty railway, which will significantly increase the capacity of the Trans-Asian Corridor.
"We believe in a common future and are already investing in it today. Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are not just neighbors but strategic allies united by a common vision for the development of the entire region," Tukumov concluded.
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