Kazakh President Tokayev to make first state visit to Singapore from May 22 to 24
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Second Minister for Education and Foreign Affairs Maliki Osman (left) will take charge as minister-in-attendance during Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s visit.
PHOTO: THE PRESIDENTIAL PALACE OF THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN
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SINGAPORE – Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is in Singapore from May 22 to 24 in what is his first official visit to the Republic since becoming head of state in 2019.
Mr Tokayev’s visit reciprocates former president Halimah Yacob’s state visit to Kazakhstan in May 2023.
Madam Halimah’s visit was the first by a Singapore president to the Republic’s largest trading partner in Central Asia.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on May 22 that the visit by the President of Kazakhstan – who is familiar with Singapore, having served as a diplomat in the 1970s and visited as foreign minister in 2004 and chairman of the senate in 2016 – will strengthen Singapore’s ties with a key Central Asian state.
A number of government-to-government agreements, as well as business-to-business agreements, are expected to be signed during the visit.
Following his arrival on the evening of May 22, President Tokayev will receive a ceremonial welcome at the Istana on the morning of May 23. He will call on President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who will host a state banquet in his honour in the evening.
The Kazakh President and his delegation will also meet Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.
The group of high-level officials escorting Mr Tokayev includes Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Murat Nurtleu, Assistant to the President for External Affairs Erzhan Kazykhan, Minister of Science and Higher Education Sayasat Nurbek, Minister of Justice Azamat Yeskarayev and Minister of Transport Marat Karabayev.
After lunch on May 23, Mr Tokayev and Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat will address the Kazakhstan-Singapore Business Forum, to be held at the Shangri-La Hotel.
The following day, the Kazakh President will deliver the 46th Singapore Lecture, organised by the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute.
This year’s lecture – Kazakhstan and Role of Middle Powers: Fostering Security, Stability and Sustainable Development – will be moderated by Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security Teo Chee Hean.
The visit will cap off with a meeting between Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong and President Tokayev.
Singapore’s relations with Kazakhstan have been underpinned by good personal ties between the countries’ leaders.
Former Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev and the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s founding prime minister, notably shared a good relationship, with Mr Lee visiting Kazakhstan in 1991, prior to the former Soviet republic’s declaration of independence on Dec 16 that year.
In 2023, Singapore marked the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations with Kazakhstan.
Both countries signed then the Services and Investment Agreement under the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union-Singapore Free Trade Agreement. This is awaiting Kazakh ratification.
Singapore’s commercial interests in Kazakhstan are currently in education, trade and connectivity, food security, tourism, urban planning and consultancy, as well as technology and digitalisation.
There were 180 Kazakhstan companies registered in Singapore as at December 2023, and about 30 Singapore companies registered in Kazakhstan.
Singapore’s last engagement with Kazakhstan was when Speaker of Parliament Seah Kian Peng visited with a parliamentary delegation in April.
Dr Maliki Osman, who is Second Minister for Education and Foreign Affairs, will take charge as minister-in-attendance during President Tokayev’s visit.
