While Washington is hosting a NATO Summit to demonstrate Western resolve, Russia and China convened a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Kazakhstan. In an increasingly polarized world, “middle powers” such as Kazakhstan face a growing challenge to preserve their independence and avoid being drawn into an unwanted foreign orbit. Western governments can help the country and the rest of Central Asia to navigate these stormy international waters through a closer practical engagement with emerging regional players.

At the same time, the U.S. needs to realize these countries dwell in difficult regions. At the SCO summit in Astana on July 3 and 4, Kazakhstan relinquished its year-long chairmanship to China. While the SCO is widely viewed as Beijing and Moscow’s attempt to pull members away from the West, Kazakhstan used its membership and leadership in the SCO and other intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) to consolidate Central Asian resilience to outside pressures.

Kazakhstan does not have the luxury of a NATO security umbrella to defend its security. Instead, it protects its national interests through a multi-vector policy pioneered thirty years ago after its independence from the Soviet Union. This is accomplished by not aligning too closely with any single state, balancing its international connections, and engaging with numerous multilateral groups, including the SCO, the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe (OSCE), the Organization of Turkic States (OTS), and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA).

As a founding member of the SCO, Kazakhstan has tabled various initiatives, including an agreement on settling border issues and accords to combat terrorism. The current SCO agenda promotes cultural cooperation, environmental protection, and digital connectivity. Kazakhstan also pursues the “Nurly Zhol” infrastructure development program, which involves extensive railroad and highway construction to advance regional trade and investment, thus promoting greater economic integration in Central Asia.

Astana undertakes an activist approach within several IGOs as an essential component of its foreign policy. It chaired the OSCE, which involved all European and post-Soviet states. It signed the core OSCE documents, such as the Helsinki Final Act, committing the country to respect human rights, the self-determination of nations, and inter-state cooperation. It is also a recognized leader in nuclear disarmament since it has relinquished its nuclear weapons and closed the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. The OSCE provides a valuable format for more intensive Western diplomatic and practical cooperation with all the Central Asian capitals by coordinating future initiatives that strengthen the region’s prominence, whether in nuclear security, environmental protection, or counterterrorism.

Kazakhstan chaired the OSCE in 2010 as the first post-Soviet and Central Asian country to do so. That year, the OSCE summit adopted the Astana Declaration and introduced the concept of “Eurasian security” for the post-Soviet independent states. Kazakhstan has participated in programs to strengthen border security, counter cybercrime, improve water resource management, and encourage public participation in governance. Additionally, Astana works closely with the OSCE to empower women in social, political, and economic life, including law enforcement and the judicial system. Programs for gender equality are another important arena for closer Western involvement.

Astana is at the forefront of developing cooperation between Turkic-speaking states, which is becoming a valuable regional counterbalance to Russian and Chinese influence. Several formats exist to unite Turkic countries, including the International Organization of Turkic Culture. Kazakhstan launched the Cooperation Council of Turkic-speaking States, became a full-fledged international organization, and was renamed the OTS in November 2021. The OTS also includes Turkey, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. 

Among OTS’s priorities is the development of transportation networks. The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), or the Middle Corridor, is designed to give the region greater economic clout by installing a regulatory and legal framework for the free movement of goods, services, capital, and labor. The OTS also contains a cultural and educational dimension, with Astana committed to developing a unified alphabet for Turkic countries and preparing common textbooks on history, geography, and literature. The United States and the EU need to engage much more effectively with the OTS and help raise its international stature as a contributor to regional security. A similar approach toward the CICA can broaden the partnership for security beyond the Turkic states.

The United States and EU members can benefit from enhanced diplomatic engagement with Kazakhstan and Central Asia through the OSCE and CICA. Keeping Central Asia a nuclear-free zone is important to keep tensions down. More dialogue and cooperation with the Organization of Turkic States is also needed as the Turkic world’s self-awareness is growing, including in countering religious extremism, environment, and education. Finally, just as Austria and Switzerland played a key role in reducing tensions during the Cold War, today’s global antagonists can meet in Kazakhstan on neutral grounds, as they used to do in Vienna and Lausanne in the last century. Coordination on nuclear security and the environment is crucial even as tensions are rising around Taiwan and Ukraine.

Kazakhstan is seeking greater Western involvement in all diplomatic, economic, and social domains while maintaining amicable relations with China and Russia. By actively participating in multiple IGOs together with its Central Asian neighbors, Astana exerts leverage and punches above its weight. Nonetheless, while bordering two major powers with regional ambitions, Central Asia can better enhance its security and resilience by engaging the West.

Janusz Bugajski is a Senior Fellow at the Jamestown Foundation and author of Failed State: A Guide to Russia’s Rupture and the upcoming book Pivotal Poland: Europe’s Rising Power. Follow him on X: @JBugajski.

Image: Jane Peimer / Shutterstock.com.