KazISS Director Yerkin Tukumov: OTS must not be politicized
Director of the Kazakhstan President’s Institute of Strategic Studies (KazISS) Yerkin Tukumov calls not to politicize the Organization of Turkic States. In his words, the OTS states must develop in such areas as economy, investments and innovations, Kazinform reports.
“Amid geopolitical confrontations, one should not create a problem out of nothing. Everything we need now is to develop in such areas as economy, investments and innovations. Today we have heard good ideas on personnel training and establishment of an OTS research center. OTS does not act against anyone. We must not politicize our organization. Our discussions are pragmatic and focus solely on our interests,” Tukumov said at the OTS Think Tanks Conference in Astana.
According to him, the expert community of the OTS plays a key role in promoting cooperation.
“We see it reasonable to expand the interaction of scientific and expert communities of our countries. We should arrive at common understanding of the existing problems and develop most effective approaches to their settlement. We need to develop trade-economic, transport-logistics and infrastructure research areas. I am confident that substantial expert dialogue will contribute to the economic development of the OTS member states,” Yerkin Tukumov said.
He emphasized that the transformation of the Turkic Council into the Organization of Turkic States proved the deepening of our cooperation. It marks a new milestone in a joint history of our countries. Therefore, the OTS member states set strategic goals aimed at deepening the economic cooperation and development of transport interconnectedness.
In his words, Kazakhstan’s trade with the OTS states rose almost threefold in 2010-2022 – from $4.5 billion to $12.9 billion.
“We hope to boost mutual commodity turnover up to $23 billion in a short-term outlook, through the implementation of joint economic projects, which will enable us to significantly expand the trade and production potential of our cooperation. The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route can soon become a driver of Kazakhstan’s transport-logistics sector. We have already reduced transit time from China to Europe, at least, threefold – from 53 to 19-23 days. Alongside, transit time through Kazakhstan has reduced twofold – from 12 to 6 days. We plan to raise this indicator to 5 days by the end of the year,” he added.
The OTS Think Tanks Conference discussed the pressing issues of cooperation of the member states amid dynamically changing international situation.
