ASTANA – For decades, Kazakhstan has built its foreign policy around a principle central to its place in the world: maintaining productive relations with competing powers without becoming dependent on any one of them. This has allowed Astana to work with Russia, China, the United States (US), the European Union and others, even as those powers have competed for influence in Eurasia.
AI may be about to test that model in an entirely new way. Photo credit: AI-generated image/ The Astana Times But the question may not be whether Kazakhstan will eventually be forced to choose between Washington and Beijing. A more consequential question is whether AI could encourage a different way of organizing international relations in the first place, one in which cooperation, interoperability, transparency and trust become as strategically important as alignment.
Kazakhstan is already at the center of that debate. It is participating in both the U.S.-led Pax Silica initiative and China’s World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO), two frameworks that reflect different approaches to the emerging AI landscape.
Zhaslan Madiyev took part in the summit hosted by the Donald J. Trump United States Institute of Peace, with support from the U.S. Department of State. Photo credit: Rustem Kozhybayev/Kazinform The overlap has already attracted attention in Washington. Reuters reported in August that the U.S.
State Department was preparing to tell countries participating in both Pax Silica and China’s competing AI framework that they would have to choose one side. According to a draft letter reviewed by Reuters, countries seeking to participate in Pax Silica would be expected to commit exclusively to the U.S.-led initiative, although Washington had not decided whether or when to send the letter.
Kazakhstan was among the countries identified as participating in both. That possibility reflects a familiar logic of great-power competition: as a strategic technology becomes more important, major powers seek trusted partners and become less comfortable with those partners maintaining deep ties to their rivals.
AI, however, may ultimately make that logic harder to sustain. Pax Silica is broader than an AI organization. Launched by the US in late 2025, it is built around securing supply chains that underpin the AI economy, extending from critical minerals and energy to semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, computing infrastructure and logistics.
It emphasizes resilience, trusted partners and the protection of sensitive technologies. WAICO, established in Shanghai on July 16 by 29 founding countries including Kazakhstan, presents itself differently. Beijing describes it as an international intergovernmental organization focused on AI cooperation and global governance.
At a July 17 press briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said China would work with other countries on the basis of “extensive consultation and joint contribution for shared benefit” and seek greater coordination on AI development strategies, governance rules and technical standards.
He said China was ready to work with all parties to respond to AI’s opportunities and challenges. The wording is significant. Pax Silica emphasizes building a trusted technology ecosystem. WAICO is being presented as a platform for broader international participation and coordination.