Kazakhstan Embassy hosts Club's ICC participants for cultural learning experience, meal

Most Americans know very little about Kazakhstan, the country’s ambassador to the U.S., Yerzhan Ashikbayev, observed in remarks to the visiting members of the National Press Club's International Correspondents Committee. Some 30 ICC members were invited to the embassy on April 29 to close this information gap.

“I want to bring fact-based information to the media,” explained the Harvard-educated ambassador, who has served in that position since 2021. He noted that Kazakhstan is the ninth-largest landmass in the world, the largest land-locked country, and had the world’s fourth-largest nuclear arsenal when it became independent in 1991. (It has since divested itself of its nuclear weapons and voted for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in 2017).

Ashikbayev described several guiding principles of his country’s foreign policy. Because of Kazakhstan’s geographic position, natural resources and economic interests, it cannot limit itself to the region of Central Asia.

He noted that his country is a market economy and a member of the World Trade Organization. Its investment ratings are better than those of its Central Asian neighbors. Its per capita GDP is comparatively good and is improving consistently. Although Kazakhstan is majority Muslim (about 70% of the population), it opened an embassy in Israel in 1996 and maintains good relations with it.

The integrity of the embassy setting added to the evening.  The embassy is situated in the former home of American Vice President James S. Sherman. Kazakh art adorns the walls, there was a display of photographs of notable landmarks and landscapes, and one room was set up as a Kazakh yurt, with typical chapans (long loose robes) and kalpaks (hats) that guests could try on.

Before Ashikbayev’s remarks, he invited two Kazakh musicians, a brother and sister pianist and violinist, to play representative music. After an off-the-record Q&A, NPC President Emily Wilkins presented the ambassador with an official NPC mug, and guests adjourned to a delicious buffet.