Kazakhstan seeks ‘great gain,’ not the ‘Great Game’

Last week in Astana, I asked Roman Vassilenko, deputy foreign minister, what Kazakhstan means by its so-called “multi-vector” foreign policy – a term regularly bandied about in academic circles.

Vassilenko said that Kazakhstan has been able to secure and promote its national interests because the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ diplomatic outreach has been smart and flexible rather than dumb, pushy, and ideological. He said this without an observable trace of hubris.

Vassilenko explained it this way: “Our diplomatic skills are rooted in the traditional world view of the Kazakh people who, for millennia, protected their interests not through war but through what we today call diplomacy. Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev carries on in the same tradition. We are sandwiched between great powers and civilizations, and, for this reason, we have always strived to build constructive, mutually respectful, mutually beneficial relations with neighboring countries.”

What’s more, Kazakhstan does not see itself as a pawn in someone else’s “Great Game,” and rejects any attempt to be treated as such. Rather, Kazakhstan maintains that it has chosen its own path of socio-political development. Like India, Kazakhstan, always alert to outside pressures, has no desire to buy into whatever web any great power may be spinning at any given time. It remains to be seen how well Kazakhstan can withstand great power arm-twisting when it happens.

Vassilenko insists that the proof is in the pudding: “We are a nation at peace with ourselves, at peace with our neighbors, and at peace with the rest of the world,” he said. “And despite a difficult and tense geopolitical environment, we are able to maintain and develop relations with Russia, China