Kassym-Jomart Tokayev
THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN
Born on May 17, 1953 in the city of Alma-Ata (now Almaty). Father - Kemel T. Tokayev (1923-1986), a veteran of World War II, a well-known writer, founder of a detective-adventure genre in Kazakh literature. Mother - Turar Shabarbayeva (1931-2000), worked for the Alma-Ata Teacher Training Institute of Foreign Languages.
In 1975 K. Tokayev graduates from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), has a pre-degree internship at the USSR Embassy in the People's Republic of China, in 1983-1984 he works on probation at the Beijing Linguistic Institute. In 1992 he finished the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
His professional life starts in 1975 in the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs and he got sent to work at the Soviet Embassy in the Republic of Singapore. In 1979 he returns to the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1984-1985 he works at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, and then he got sent to the Soviet Embassy in the People's Republic of China, where he works until 1991 as Second Secretary, First Secretary and Adviser.
In 1992 he is appointed the Deputy Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan. In 1993, he becomes the First Deputy Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan. In 1994 he is appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan. In March 1999, he becomes the Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan. In October 1999, with the consent of the Parliament by the Decree of the President of Kazakhstan, he is appointed as the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan. In January 2002, he becomes the State Secretary - Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan. From 2003 to 2007 he is the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan. He takes an active part in the global process of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
In January 2007 he is elected as the Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of Kazakhstan. In 2008, he is elected as the Vice-President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly as the Speaker of the upper chamber of the Kazakh parliament.
In March 2011, he is appointed as the UN Deputy Secretary-General, Director-General of the UN Office at Geneva, and also Personal Representative of the UN Secretary-General at the Conference on Disarmament. He also takes the office as the Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament. He is elected as the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the CIS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
October 16, 2013 he is re-elected as the Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament, Kazakhstan.
On March 20, 2019, he takes the oath as the President of Kazakhstan.
Since 2007, he has been a member of Nur Otan Party and the Bureau of the Political Council of Nur Otan Party. Member of the Security Council of Kazakhstan. Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador. Doctor of Political Sciences. Full member of the World Academy of Humanities and Natural Sciences. Member of the Council of the Wise Men of the Munich Security Conference. Honorary Professor of the Shenzhen University (PRC) and the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. Honorary President of Kazakhstan’s Council on Foreign Relations. Honorary Dean of the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations. According to the Russian Biographical Society, he enters the list of winners of the “Man of the Year - 2018”. For 13 years he headed the Table Tennis Federation of Kazakhstan.
He is the author of 10 books on international relations.
He is awarded numerous state awards of Kazakhstan and foreign countries, as well as commemorative medals.
He supports a healthy lifestyle. He is fond of reading fiction, political and memoir literature.
Divorced.
His son is Timur.