1. OVERVIEW: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Kazakhstan’s foreign policy promotes mutually beneficial economic and
political cooperation with all its neighbors. Now, as chair of the OCSE,
Kazakhstan’s international relations are being examined. Joanna Lillis reports
U.S. President Barack Obama
holds a bilateral meeting
with President Nursultan
Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan
at the Blair House, April 11,
2010 in Washington, D.C.

2. OVERVIEW: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
DRIVE FOR WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION
MEMBERSHIP
Kazakhstan is well-advanced Ecuador, Mongolia, Taiwan, Saudi
in its World Trade Organization Arabia, and El Salvador.
(WTO) accession talks, which Plans for Kazakhstan to enter
have been under way since the WTO as a bloc inside its new
1996, and hopes to make further Customs Union with Russia and
progress this year. Three core Belarus have been shelved after
issues remain in Kazakhstan’s indications that it would complicate
multilateral negotiations with the the accession process. The states of
WTO: intellectual property; sanitary the Customs Union – which came
and phytosanitary standards; and into force on January 1 and aims to
technical barriers to trade. The WTO introduce a Single Economic Space
is also seeking more information in 2012 – decided to continue
from Kazakhstan on domestic separate WTO accession talks
subsidies to agriculture. but to synchronize their positions
In terms of the bilateral negotiations throughout the process.
which are under way in parallel
as part of the accession process,
Kazakhstan has reached bilateral
agreements with 22 member states
and continues negotiations on access
to markets with seven members: the
United States, the European Union,