Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Conducts First State Visit to Kazakhstan

Sultan Haitham bin Tariq of Oman conducted the first-ever state visit by an Omani Sultan to Kazakhstan and the Central Asian region on October 5 and 6, 2026. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev welcomed the Sultan in Astana with a military escort and a Guard of Honour parade at Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport, followed by an official reception at the Palace of Independence.

The leaders held talks to intensify cooperation in political, cultural, and economic spheres. A primary focus of the visit was the development of a multimodal transport corridor to link Kazakh railway and road networks with Omani ports, providing Kazakhstan with a logistics outlet for exports such as wheat, flour, metals, and pipes into the Indian Ocean and Gulf regions. The two nations also signed an agreement concerning the Dunga oil field.

Economic ties have grown rapidly, with trade exchange rising from RO 421,500 in 2025 to RO 22,883,700 in the first half of 2026. The countries currently maintain a joint investment portfolio of five projects valued at approximately $3 billion, including the 2025 acquisition of a stake in the rail company Asytrans by the Omani entity Asyad. To institutionalize this growth, a Royal decree established the Omani-Kazakh Joint Committee for Economic, Trade, Investment, and Tourism Cooperation. President Tokayev also called for additional direct commercial flights to further increase tourism and people-to-people exchanges.