Site Information:  Newly Independent States of the Former Soviet Union

Title:         
Kazakhstan

Public Affairs

Source:         Bureau of Public Affairs, Office of Public
                 Communication

Description:    Washington, DC

Date:           Aug 24, 19928/24/92

Category:       Fact Sheets

Region:         Eurasia

Country:        Kazakhstan, USSR (former)

Subject:        History, Democratization, Trade/Economics,
                 Cultural Exchange

Map: Central, Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Republics

[TEXT]

US-Kazakhstan Relations

The United States recognized Kazakhstan's independence on
December 25, 1991, and was the first country to open an embassy
there in January 1992.

        Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev made his first official
visit to Washington, DC, May 18-20, 1992.  He met with President
Bush, Secretary Baker, and a wide array of government and business
leaders.  During his visit, the United States and Kazakhstan signed a
series of agreements to expand economic, technical, and cultural
ties between the two countries.  These included an agreement to
extend reciprocal most-favored-nation tariff treatment to the
products of each country, a bilateral investment treaty which
provides legal protections for investors of one country in the
territory of the other country, and an agreement enabling the
Overseas Private Investment Corporation to make available
investment insurance for American firms operating in Kazakhstan.
The two leaders also agreed to end diplomatic travel restrictions,
to conclude a new convention for avoidance of double taxation of
income, and to develop further cooperation in the area of scientific
research and environmental protection.

        The Administration has asked Congress to appropriate $620
million for fiscal years 1992 and 1993 for emergency humanitarian
relief and technical assistance to support democratic reform and
promote economic restructuring in the new independent states
(NIS).  About 50% of these funds will go to Ukraine, Armenia,
Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.  The Administration also has supported
the establishment of a new private organization, the Eurasia Foundation,
which will provide grants to institutions and individuals in the US
and the NIS for technical assistance, management training, and
democratic institution-building.

        At the Lisbon Conference on Assistance to the New Independent
States, May 23-24, 1992, the United States signed a protocol to the
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Kazakhstan, Russia,
Belarus, and Ukraine (those states on whose territory nuclear
weapons are located).  The protocol makes the four states parties to
the START Treaty and commits all the signatories to reductions in
strategic nuclear weapons within the 7-year peried provided for in
the treaty.  On June 5, 1992, Kazakhstan and the other new
independent states signed the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe
(CFE) Treaty, which reduces stockpiles of tanks, artillery, and
armored vehicles.  On  July 2, 1992, the parliament of Kazakhstan
ratified the START and CFE agreements.

Building Democracy

The Kazakh parliament declared independence from the former
Soviet Union on December 16, 1991.  In the  December 1991
presidential elections, President Nazarbaev ran unopposed and
received 98% of the vote.

        There are several opposition political parties and numerous
smaller interest or social groups.  The Nevada-Semipalatinsk anti-
nuclear movement played an important role in the recent ban on
nuclear tests in the republic.  The Kazakh Communist Party has
changed its name to the Socialist Party, but it has little influence.

        Kazakhstan joined the Commonwealth of Independent States in
December 1991.  It became a member of the Conference on Security
and Cooperation in Europe in January 1992, and the United Nations
and the North Atlantic Cooperation Council in
March 1992.

Economic Conditions

In 1988, Kazakhstan's net output accounted for 4.3% of total output
in the former Soviet Union. About 23% of the population is engaged
in agriculture.  Major products are wool, grain, and meat.  The
northern area of the country produces up to one-third of all wheat
grown in the territory of the NIS.   The United States recently
launched a farmer-to-farmer assistance program that will provide
hands-on training in US-style farm technology and agricultural
cooperatives.  It is the first phase of a 3-year, $30-million program
administered by the US Agency for International Development, under
which five teams of volunteers will work in Kazakhstan, Russia, and
Ukraine with farm groups interested in establishing private
agribusiness enterprises.

        Kazakhstan was a Soviet industrial center during and after
World War II, when the USSR moved industry east of the Urals to protect
it from Nazi invasion.  Mining and quarrying play a major role in
Kazakhstan's economy.  Abundant mineral resources-which include mineral
oil, natural gas, metals, gold, and coal-provide the bulk of the
republic's limited hard currency.  In 1989, Kazakhstan produced about
19% of total coal and 10% of total iron ore production in the former
Soviet Union.

        The United States seeks to promote self-sustaining economic
reforms in Kazakhstan by encouraging trade and investment by US
companies.  In addition, the Department of Commerce's Special
American Business Intern Training Program is bringing managers
from privatizing companies in Kazakhstan for training programs in
the United States, the Department of Agriculture is sending US
agribusiness experts to work in Kazakh enterprises, and, under the
Trade and Development Program, the United States is funding a
feasibility study for the development of a coal mine in the
Kendyrlik region and construction of a highway from Alma-Ata to
Krasnovodsk in Turkmenistan.

Kazakhstan at a Glance

The origins of the Kazakh people are uncertain, but traditional
similarities indicate that they may have descended from the Mongol
Golden Horde.

        Kazakhs founded a great nomadic empire under Burunduk Khan
and his son Kasym Khan, who ruled from 1488 to 1518.  Later, the
empire broke into smaller groups called khanates.  The region was
incorporated into the Russian empire by 1848.

        A Kazakh nationalist movement arose in the early 20th
century.  The Soviet Army occupied Kazakhstan from 1919 to 1920
before it became a republic in 1921.  After 1927, the Soviets
forcibly settled the Kazakhs, diluting nationalistic sentiment by
resettling large groups of Russians and Ukrainians into the region,
especially during the 1950s.

        Kazakhstan covers about 2.7 million square kilometers (about
four times the size of Texas).  Ethnic Kazakhs make up 18% of the
population of the capital (Alma-Ata) and 50% of the surrounding
countryside.  In 1990, total population was 16.7 million.  Ethnic
Kazakhs comprise about 40% of the country's population; Russians,
about 38%.  Germans, Ukrainians, Koreans, and other groups make up
the remainder.

Principal Government Officials

President:  Nursultan Nazarbaev
Foreign Minister:  Tolevtay Suleymenov
Capital:  Alma-Ata  o