The United States Recognizes Kazakhstan’s Independence

After the Soviet Union dissolved, the United States kept its embassy in Moscow, and Russia assumed the Soviet seat on the United Nations Security Council. Other former republics established direct diplomatic relations with Washington. [1] [2]

At nine o’clock on Christmas night in 1991, George H. W. Bush addressed Americans from the Oval Office and announced recognition of Kazakhstan as an independent state. Mikhail Gorbachev had resigned as president of the Soviet Union earlier that day. Washington would now deal directly with republics whose foreign relations had previously run through Moscow. [1]

Bush tied the opening to commitments on nuclear safety, democratic government, and market reform. He promised to move quickly toward diplomatic relations with Kazakhstan and to support its admission to the United Nations. [1]

When Nursultan Nazarbayev visited Washington the following May, Bush welcomed Kazakhstan’s pledge to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty without nuclear weapons. The two governments also signed trade and investment agreements. Their early agenda joined the urgent problem of weapons inherited from the Soviet Union to commerce and the difficult transition to a new economy. [2]

Related Diplomats

1. Tuleutay Suleymenov [3] [4]

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• Kazakhstan and the United States