No Rush to Join BRICS - Political Scientist's Opinion on Kazakhstan's Decision

On October 23-24, Kazan will host the BRICS summit. President Qasym-Jomart Toqayev has been invited.

Political observer Gaziz Abishev shared his opinion on why Kazakhstan does not plan to join this organization, Orda.kz reports. The summit will be attended by leaders of BRICS member countries, states considering accession, and observer countries.

Abishev believes that Kazakhstan is unlikely to become a BRICS member soon; there is no urgent need for it. The country has maintained close relations with Russia through other organizations such as the CIS, CSTO, and the EAEU.

Additionally, as the expert notes, Kazakhstan has ties with China both in the economic sphere through the One Belt, One Road initiative and in matters of defense and security. Kazakhstan also cooperates with the BRICS states — Russia, China, India, and Iran — within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) framework.

Abishev notes that BRICS is often perceived as a counterweight to Western countries, which may raise questions about Kazakhstan’s neutral policy.

BRICS is in a way positioned as a counterweight to the collective West, used as an argument in the confrontational rhetoric of the Eastern Bloc "hawks." In this sense, Kazakhstan's accession itself would raise a number of additional questions about its peaceful multi-vector policy, which could be converted into some diplomatic capital, the expert writers.

At the same time, Kazakhstan supports the UN as the central platform for solving international problems and does not want to be distracted by projects that may contradict this position.

There is no bad-blood towards BRICS in Kazakhstan, quite the opposite. But joining this organization means either actively participating in its projects to form alternative world systems, or being a barrier to their development. Neither of these is of particular interest to Kazakhstan at this stage,Abishev sums up.  

The press secretary of the President of Kazakhstan, Berik Uali, had previously told Tengrinews that Kazakhstan had received offers to join BRICS but does not plan to apply in the foreseeable future. The president will speak at the summit on October 24 in the "outreach" format.

Vladimir Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, later responded, saying:

With respect (about Kazakhstan's choice). Kazakhstan is our friend, our strategic partner, our ally. We value our relations. This is the first thing. And therefore, of course, Kazakhstan itself makes decisions on the format of its participation in certain organizations. At the same time, BRICS is not, so to speak, an association that is trying to replace the UN, but on the contrary, it is an association that complements the UN and in no way contradicts the nature of the United Nations.

In August 2023, at the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, Toqayev said he would like to see Kazakhstan in the union.

At the end of August this year, Azerbaijan applied for BRICS membership, and at the beginning of September, Türkiye did the same.

Original Author: Alina Pak