China-Kazakhstan: Cooperation within The Belt and Road and Nurly Zhol

Abstract The purpose of this paper is an attempt to investigate and assess Astana’s place as Beijing’s most reliable political and economic partner in Central Asia. The two countries jointly implement large-scale projects in the infrastructure, transport and connectivity sectors, promote cooperation in the field of energy and finance, deepen relations in the humanitarian and cultural spheres, strengthen partnership in the field of security. Given the relevance of the topic and its scientific and political significance, the goal was to explore the key importance of Kazakhstan and its role in the China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which is primarily due to the country’s strategic and geographic location as a major land corridor connecting China to Russia and Europe via newly expanded rail and road networks. The research methodology includes content and discourse analysis tools, which are used to identify the dynamics of the development of relations between China and Kazakhstan, as well as the synergistic effect of combining the Chinese BRI and Kazakhstan’s Nurly Zhol program on the development of Kazakhstan’s economy. Such a perspective of synergy is of great importance in the context of the modernisation of Kazakhstan’s economy and in the conditions of the global economic crisis and falling oil prices.