Tuleutay Suleymenov

Tuleutay Suleymenov began as a steelworker and trained as a metallurgical engineer before moving through party administration into diplomacy. He studied at the Soviet Diplomatic Academy and served as a consul in Afghanistan. In a later interview, he recalled meeting Nursultan Nazarbayev at the Karaganda steelworks in 1960 and studying alongside him. Suleymenov became independent Kazakhstan's first foreign minister in December 1991. ^{1, 2}

As ambassador in Washington from 1994 to 1996, Suleymenov represented a government cooperating with the United States to secure the Soviet nuclear legacy. He appeared with Secretaries William Perry, Warren Christopher, and Hazel O'Leary at the November 23, 1994, announcement of Project Sapphire. The operation had transferred 600 kilograms of highly enriched uranium from Kazakhstan to secure storage in Tennessee. Christopher publicly thanked Suleymenov while describing the diplomatic work behind the operation. ^{1, 3}

After Washington, Suleymenov held several European ambassadorships, including assignments in Hungary, Belgium, and Poland and representation to European institutions. He later became director of the Institute of Diplomacy at Kazakhstan's Academy of Public Administration and taught foreign policy. ¹