Today, May 17, marks the birthday of the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. This year, the Head of State turns 73, reports “Adyrna.”
According to the official website of Akorda, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev was born on May 17, 1953, in Almaty.
His father, Kemel Tokayev (1923–1986), was a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, a well-known writer, and considered the founder of the detective-adventure genre in Kazakh literature. His mother, Turar Shabarbayeva (1931–2000), worked at the Almaty Institute of Foreign Languages.
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1975. He completed a pre-graduation internship at the Soviet Embassy in the People’s Republic of China. Between 1983 and 1984, he also studied at the Beijing Institute of Linguistics. In 1992, he graduated from the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
He began his career in 1975 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR and was assigned to the Soviet Embassy in Singapore. In 1979, he returned to the central office of the Soviet Foreign Ministry. Between 1984 and 1985, he worked at the Ministry before being posted to the Soviet Embassy in China, where he served until 1991 as Second Secretary, First Secretary, and Counselor.
In 1992, Tokayev was appointed Deputy Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan. In 1993, he became First Deputy Foreign Minister, and in 1994, Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan. In March 1999, he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister, and in October of the same year, he became Prime Minister of Kazakhstan by presidential decree with parliamentary approval.
In January 2002, he was appointed State Secretary and Foreign Minister. From 2003 to 2007, he again served as Foreign Minister, actively contributing to global nuclear non-proliferation efforts.
In January 2007, Tokayev was elected Chairman of the Senate of Kazakhstan’s Parliament. In 2008, as Speaker of the Senate, he was elected Vice President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.
In March 2011, he was appointed Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Director-General of the UN Office at Geneva, and Personal Representative of the UN Secretary-General to the Conference on Disarmament. He also served as Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament and chaired the councils of foreign ministers of the CIS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
On October 16, 2013, he was re-elected Chairman of the Senate of Kazakhstan.
On March 20, 2019, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev took the oath of office as President of Kazakhstan.
In the snap presidential election held on June 9, 2019, he won 70.96% of the vote and was elected President. On June 12, 2019, he officially assumed office in accordance with Article 42 of the Constitution of Kazakhstan.
In the early presidential election held on November 20, 2022, Tokayev won with 81.31% of the vote. His inauguration ceremony took place on November 26, 2022.
Since April 2021, he has served as Chairman of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan, and since January 2022, as Chairman of Kazakhstan’s Security Council. He holds the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, is a Doctor of Political Science, a full member of the World Academy of Humanities and Natural Sciences, and a member of the Munich Security Conference’s Council of Elders.
Tokayev is also an honorary professor at Shenzhen University and the Diplomatic Academy of Russia’s Foreign Ministry, honorary president of the Kazakhstan Council on International Relations, and honorary dean of the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations. In 2018, he was named “Person of the Year” by the Russian Biographical Society.
He also headed Kazakhstan’s Table Tennis Federation for 13 years and is the author of 10 books on international relations.
