On November 29, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev 
paid a historic visit to France and held a meeting with his French counterpart 
Emmanuel Macron. The Presidents discussed the prospects for the further 
development of strategic partnership and cooperation between two countries.

On the same day, the meeting of the Astana Club, organized in support of the 
President's visit, was held in Paris. The meeting was dedicated to the topic 
"Greater Eurasia: building dialogue in the age of uncertainty".

The Astana Club platform once again brought together prominent international 
figures, including the world-famous economist Nouriel Roubini, former Head of 
Bank of Israel and Chairman of the Group of Thirty Jacob Frenkel, Chairman of 
the Financial Stability Board (FSB) Klaas Knoth, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate on 
climate change Raekwon Chung and many others.

During the key session, Prof. Roubini noted the importance of Central Asia to 
continue the policy of balancing between Great powers. "It is necessary to 
diversify your allies. There is no point in relying solely on Russia, China, EU 
or the US."

Considering the current geopolitics, ex-deputy assistant to the US President 
for national security Lisa Curtis noted: "Until this year few questioned 
Russia's influence in Central Asia. However, the tectonic shifts certainly rise 
questions about if Central Asian states will allow themselves to remain reliant 
on Russia alone."

Ms. Curtis believes that a window of opportunity is opening for the world to 
build stronger relations with the region.  

Peter Frankopan, a well-known historian from Oxford University noted that the 
process of de-globalization will require a new adaptation.

Frankopan emphasized: "Central Asian states are in a tricky neighborhood. The 
need to maneuver between Moscow and Beijing is forcing the countries to use 
special approaches when implementing foreign policies".

The session was moderated by Yerzhan Saltybaev, Director of Institute of World 
Economics and Politics from Kazakhstan, who stated that "We are witnessing the 
emergence Eurasia as a single economic space, and Central Asia and Kazakhstan 
has a great potential to become an assemblage point of the continent".

The experts emphasized that the key factor for stability in Eurasia is the 
speedy resolution of the conflict in Ukraine. All participants of the 
conference specially noted the high importance and timeliness of the visit of 
the President of Kazakhstan to France at this political moment.

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SOURCE: Astana Club