Kazakh-Canadian relations
Key dates
April 10, 1992 - establishment of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Kazakhstan and Canada.
1997 - opening of the Consulate of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Toronto.
May 2008 - opening of the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Canada.
April 2018 - Akylbek Absatovich Kamaldinov was appointed Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to Canada.
1994 - opening of the Diplomatic Mission of Canada in the Republic of Kazakhstan, which received the status of the Embassy in 1995.
February 2022 - Alan Hamson was appointed Ambassador of Canada to the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Political Dialogue
An important event in relations between Kazakhstan and Canada was the first official visit of the First President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev to Canada in June 2003, which laid a solid foundation for promoting political dialogue, trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian cooperation.
Nazarbayev met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the G20 Summit in Hangzhou in August 2016.
In December 2018, the Governor-General of Canada Julie Payette visited Kazakhstan, during which she met with President Nazarbayev, the Chairman of the Senate, Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev, and took part in monitoring the launch of Canadian cosmonaut David Saint-Jacques from the cosmodrome Baikonur.
In February 2020, President Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev held bilateral talks with Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau on the sidelines of the 56th Munich Security Conference.
The agenda of bilateral dialogue in the international arena includes issues of WMD non-proliferation, terrorism, peacekeeping and Central Asia. Cooperation within the framework of the UN, OSCE and other international forums is being strengthened.
In recent years, the exchange of visits of heads of state bodies, parliamentarians and business circles has intensified. Representatives of Canada take part in the work of the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions and other international events in Kazakhstan.
As part of the inter-parliamentary dialogue in 2012, 2014 and 2017 exchange of high-level parliamentary delegations took place. The Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation Group “Kazakhstan-Canada” operates in the Parliament of Canada.
On November 23-27, 2022, Stephan Dion, Special Representative of the Prime Minister of Canada to the EU and Europe, visited Kazakhstan. During the visit, he met with the Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov, the Chairman of the Committee of the Senate of the Parliament on Economic Policy, Innovative Development and Entrepreneurship Dauren Adilbekov and the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Kairat Umarov. Stephane Dion also took part in the 5th meeting of the Kazakhstan-Canada Business Council.
In the same period, a visit of the Canadian parliamentary delegation took place to participate in the observation of the early elections of the President of Kazakhstan and in the 5th meeting of the Kazakhstan-Canada Business Council.
March 17, 2021 in the format of a videoconference, political consultations were held between the foreign ministries of Kazakhstan and Canada at the level of deputy foreign ministers.
Investment and Trade and Economic Cooperation
Business partnership is a "locomotive" for the development of bilateral relations between Kazakhstan and Canada.
According to the data of the National Bank of Kazakhstan in 2022, the volume of Canadian investments in Kazakhstan is 190 million US dollars. In total, since 2005, gross FDI from Canada to Kazakhstan amounted to $5.37 billion. As of the end of 2022, Canada is among the 15 largest foreign investors in Kazakhstan.
In 2022, the trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Canada amounted to 838.6 million US dollars. (export - 680.1 million, import - 158.4 million), which shows 69% growth compared to indicator of the same period in 2021.
In Kazakhstan, there are 164 enterprises with the participation of Canadian capital (Joint venture - 60, with Canadian participation - 104).
An important event for the Kazakh-Canadian partnership was the signing and entry into force in 2014 of an intergovernmental Agreement on cooperation in the field of peaceful uses of atomic energy. It brought cooperation in the uranium industry to a new level, where Kazakhstan is the first and Canada the second largest producer in the world.
The key Canadian partner is Cameco Corporation, which is a member of the Council of Foreign Investors under the President of Kazakhstan and since 1992, it has invested over 500 million US dollars in the uranium industry of Kazakhstan, including as part of the development of the «Inkai» joint venture in cooperation with NAC «Kazatomprom» JSC.
Other important areas of trade and economic cooperation are mining, exploration, agriculture and the agro-industrial complex. There is a regular exchange of business delegations, including at the level of Canadian provinces, which play a key role in expanding Canada's business ties with the outside world.
Chairman of the Board of JSC NAC «Kazatomprom» Mazhit Sharipov and President of Cameco Tim Gitzel head the Kazakhstan-Canada Business Council (KCBC), which was established in 2015. To date, five meetings of the КCBC have been held: in Astana in 2016-2017 and in Ottawa in 2018, in 2020 online format, in 2022 in Astana.
More than 100 companies from both countries take part in the work of the KCBC, along with government circles, meetings of 6 working groups are held:
1) mining and natural resources;
2) agriculture and food sector;
3) oil and gas sector (production and technology);
4) infrastructure and construction;
5) transport (including railway transport and civil aviation);
6) finance and banking.
New promising areas of partnership include aerospace, engineering, alternative energy, finance and banking.
Cooperation in the Cultural and Humanitarian sphere
There is a great potential for cooperation in relations between Kazakhstan and Canada in the education sphere. Along with vocational and technical, promising areas are higher education, applied sciences, experience in creating large technological centers, etc.
The main joint project in the field of education is the creation and development of the Interregional Professional Training and Retraining Center for the oil and gas sector "APEC - Petrotechnic" in Atyrau, where the South Alberta Polytechnic Institute (SAIT Polytechnic) is a strategic partner.
The Embassy of Kazakhstan in Canada regularly holds cultural events, which are attended by the Kazakh diaspora and families who have adopted children from Kazakhstan.
Legal Framework
The legal framework consists of 11 fundamental documents, including the Double Taxation Avoidance Treaty (1998), the Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters (2003), the Intergovernmental Agreement in the field of the peaceful use of atomic energy (2013).