ASTANA – India and Kazakhstan should translate their strong political partnership into deeper trade, investment, digital and energy cooperation, participants said at the India-Kazakhstan Strategic Dialogue on Sept. 24. During the India-Kazakhstan: Anchoring Regional Stability and Economic Integration in a Multilateral World session, speakers highlighted the gap between close political ties and relatively modest bilateral trade.
Indian Ambassador to Kazakhstan Sailas Thangal said the countries need to address structural barriers limiting economic cooperation, including connectivity, logistics, customs procedures, payment mechanisms, market access and regulatory issues. “Business delegations and exhibitions alone are not enough to enhance our bilateral trade and commerce,” he said, calling for concrete measures to turn existing potential into commercial partnerships.
“India and Kazakhstan have the trust, we have the complementarity, we have the political will. What we need now is to convert this essence into connectivity, governance and concrete partnership,” he said. Rakhim Oshakbayev, director of the TALAP Center for Applied Research, described the $923 million in bilateral trade in 2025 as a “long-standing anomaly.” “Our political relationship is excellent.
Many speakers talked about this. We are strategic partners,” he said. However, he noted that logistical constraints continue to limit economic ties, describing the situation as “high politics, low logistics, big friendship, small trade.” India accounted for around 0.64% of Kazakhstan’s total foreign trade in 2025.
Oshakbayev attributed the limited trade partly to difficult transport routes. “We are close in the sky and far on the ground,” he said, proposing greater focus on high-value goods and services that depend less on traditional transport links. Uranium, pharmaceuticals and digital cooperation Uranium was identified as one of the most promising areas for expanding economic ties.
Oshakbayev referred to a long-term contract between Kazatomprom and India’s Department of Atomic Energy, saying press reports have valued it at more than $4 billion.