Kazakhstan Issues - 2024

Disputes - international

Kazakhstan-China: in 1998, Kazakhstan and China agreed to split two disputed border areas nearly evenly; demarcation with China completed in 2002

Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan: in January 2019, Kyrgyzstan ratified the 2017 agreement on the demarcation of the Kyrgyzstan-Kazakhstan border

Kazakhstan-Russia: Russia boundary delimitation was ratified on November 2005; field demarcation commenced in 2007 and was expected to be completed by 2013

Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan: Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan signed a treaty on the delimitation and demarcation process in 2001; field demarcation of the boundaries with Kazakhstan commenced in 2005; Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan agreed to their border in the Caspian Sea in 2014

Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan: field demarcation of the boundaries with Kazakhstan commenced in 2004; disputed territory is held by Uzbekistan but the overwhelming majority of residents are ethnic Kazakhs; the two countries agreed on draft final demarcation documents in March 2022 and planned to hold another meeting in April 2022

Kazakhstan-Azerbaijan-Iran-Russia: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia ratified a Caspian seabed delimitation treaty in 2018 based on equidistance, while Iran continues to insist on a one-fifth slice of the sea 

Refugees and internally displaced persons

stateless persons: 7,558 (2022)

Illicit drugs

part of the "Northern Route," land drug trafficking route from Afghanistan to Russia and Europe; domestic manufacturing of synthetics increasing and domestic drug use trends to synthetic drugs outpacing heroin and cannabis;