20 March 2019
Nursultan Nazarbayev stepped down from the Presidency of Kazakhstan and the Chairman of the Senate of Kazakhstan, a 1975 MGIMO Graduate, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has taken on the duties of President of Kazakhstan. In his March 19th address to the people of Kazakhstan, the Head of State Nursultan Nazarbayev noted:
«The issue of continuity of power in Kazakhstan is resolved constitutionally. In the event of early termination of the powers of the current President, the powers are transferred to the Chairman of the Senate before the end of the electoral term. Then, elections of the new President will take place.
The Chairman of the Senate of Parliament is currently Kassym-Jomart Kemelovich Tokayev. You know him well. He is a graduate of MGIMO and a doctor of science, fluent in English and Chinese. He has come a long way in the leadership positions of the Republic. He was the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the years of the formation of the country’s foreign policy, he worked as Deputy Prime Minister and Prime Minister of the country, as Chairperson of the Senate. He knows the country, its economy and politics. He was nominated and worked as Deputy Secretary-General of the UN. This was a great recognition of his merits as a diplomat and a sign of confidence in Kazakhstan.
He has been working at my side since the first days of independence of Kazakhstan. I know him well. He is an honest and responsible person. He fully supports the government’s policy inside and outside the country. All programmes were developed and adopted with his participation.
I believe that Tokayev is the person we can entrust with the governance of Kazakhstan.»
We sincerely wish Kassym-Jomart Tokayev success in his new duties!
— See the MGIMO web-site for russian version
