ASTANA – The Astana Times has selected a roundup of articles on Kazakhstan featured in international media this week. Today’s foreign media digest highlights Kazakhstan’s evolving role in Turkic regional relations, expanding cooperation with Kenya, and renewed international attention to the country’s efforts to reclaim and reinterpret the historical legacy of the Golden Horde.
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Kazakhstan’s Turkic relations between trade, culture, and defense
During last week’s visit by multiple leaders of Turkic states to Kazakhstan, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev celebrated their shared cultural heritage but remained reluctant on the expansion of defense cooperation, reported The Diplomat on May 21.
Kazakhstan and Kenya have signed 10 cooperation agreements on digital, transport, and space
Kazakhstan and Kenya signed ten memoranda of understanding and cooperation agreements at the end of high-level talks between the Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. and the Kenyan president William Ruto, reported Agenzia Nova on May 20.
Among the documents signed by the two countries’ official delegations are a memorandum of cooperation in information technology and e-government between the Kazakh Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development and the Kenyan Ministry of Information, Communications, and Digital Economy, as well as a memorandum of cooperation between their respective ministries of transport. A tourism agreement was also signed between the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of Kazakhstan and the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife of Kenya.
Kazakhstan, Kenya to boost trade and investment in fintech and digital sectors
Kazakhstan and Kenya aim to significantly boost trade, economic, and investment partnerships, with a particular focus on fintech, digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence, and transport and logistics networks, reported Trend on May 21.
The strategic shift was outlined during the landmark Kazakhstan-Kenya Business Forum held in Astana, organized as part of Kenyan President William Ruto’s state visit to Kazakhstan.
The event brought together senior government officials, financial experts, and business leaders from both nations, representing agribusiness, logistics, and digital technologies.
Kazakhstan reclaims the legacy of the Golden Horde in major UNESCO-backed symposium
Kazakhstan has taken a bold step to reposition the history of the Great Steppe at the center of Eurasian civilization, hosting a major international symposium in Astana dedicated to the legacy of the Golden Horde – the vast medieval empire that once connected East and West across Eurasia, according to EU Reporter on May 20.
The event, titled The Golden Horde as a Model of Steppe Civilization: History, Archaeology, Culture, and Identity, brought together more than 350 delegates, including historians, archaeologists, academics, and international organizations under the patronage of UNESCO. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev used the occasion to deliver a wider geopolitical and cultural message: that the history of the Great Steppe must be understood not merely through conquest and warfare but as a sophisticated civilizational model that helped shape global development.
In remarks that resonated well beyond Central Asia, Tokayev warned against the politicization of history and attempts to monopolize shared heritage for narrow nationalist purposes. Instead, he called for “objective, balanced and politically neutral” scholarship and greater international cooperation in understanding the Golden Horde’s contribution to world history.
Kazakhstan looks to the Golden Horde for a deeper national narrative
A major international symposium dedicated to the Golden Horde opened this week in Kazakhstan’s capital, underscoring the country’s growing effort to redefine its historical narrative and national identity through the legacy of the Great Steppe, reported The Times of Central Asia on May 20.
The symposium, held under the patronage of UNESCO and titled The Golden Horde as a Model of Steppe Civilization: History, Archaeology, Culture and Identity, brought together more than 300 scholars, including 120 foreign researchers from over 20 countries.
The event reflects Kazakhstan’s effort to align its national narrative with a growing body of scholarship that treats nomadic societies not as a “backward” alternative to sedentary civilizations, but as a distinct and highly sophisticated model of statehood shaped by the economic realities of the Eurasian steppe.
Opening the symposium, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev declared that “no historian today questions the power of the Golden Horde, the empire that ruled the Great Steppe and occupied vast expanses of Eurasia. The empire that connected East and West and exerted a profound influence on the development of civilizations and the formation of states was unquestionably one of the largest political structures in history,” Tokayev said.
