AZERBAIJAN LEAVES ARMENIA BEHIND
Vestnik Kavkaza
July 18 2012
Russia
The Kazakhstan agency Rating.KZ published data of a poll which
indicates the foreign political priorities of Kazakhstan in the
sphere of relations with key partners. Unlike previous research of
this agency the expert poll was not conducted, and materials were
summed up from open sources.
Three factors were considered: frequency of meetings, mutual turnover,
and the investment aspect. The results didn’t bring sensations. The
first-second places are traditionally taken by Russian and China. Ii
can be told without carrying out any research.
It is interesting that Nursultan Nazarbayev met the Russian authorities
most often, but in the sphere of turnover and investments Russia yields
its position to China and the Netherlands. However, 3-6 places were
difficult to predict.
For example, Ukraine took third place with a great advantage over
Germany. Fifth and sixth places were taken by France and the US.
Washington achieved this high position due to investment, while France
– due to a significant level of turnover.
At the same time, neither Paris nor Washington is presented in top-10
of countries-partners according to number of official meetings. They
yield positions not only to the CIS countries, but also to the UAE
and even Armenia, as these two countries took fifth and sixth places
according to frequency of top officials meetings.
However, here we can see a relevant mismatch. In the final rating
Armenia took 32nd place because neither turnover nor investment
doesn’t correlate with frequency of meetings (39th and 37th places
correspondingly).
Along with Russia and Ukraine such countries of the CIS and
Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Azerbaijan got into
top-20. Azerbaijan left Italy and Austria behind, even though Austria
takes a high position according to turnover with Astana. The rating’s
authors note that those countries which President of Kazakhstan
visited during the year, for example, Malaysia and Indonesia, are
not among leader in turnover, they take 32nd and 33rd places.
At the same time, probably these circumstances cause visits of
Kazakhstan’s top management to the country which is called an example
of economic modernization (Malaysia), even though Kazakhstan has no
common economic interests with it.
Unlike previous rating research based on expert estimations this
material seem to be more independent, but more illustrative and
systemic. Probably the data would be more interesting if one more
aspect is added – social view on countries-partners by Kazakhstan’s
residents. .
From: A. Papazian