The Middle Corridor had become “not an alternative, but a mandatory choice,” Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz said on April 15 as he held talks in Astana with Kazakh Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov and co-chaired the 14th meeting of the Türkiye-Kazakhstan Joint Economic Commission.

At the end of the meeting, the two sides signed the commission protocol and a 67-item action plan aimed at deepening cooperation, The Caspian Post reports, citing foreign media.

Türkiye and Kazakhstan already describe each other as strategic partners, and Turkish officials say Kazakhstan remains Ankara’s largest trade partner in Central Asia.

Speaking before the commission meeting, Yılmaz said global supply chains were going through a deep rupture.

He said the Northern Corridor had become unpredictable because of geopolitical tensions, while southern routes were straining against capacity limits.

“This picture has made the Middle Corridor not an alternative, but a mandatory choice,” he said, adding that Türkiye and Kazakhstan stood at the center of that route.

Yılmaz also said Türkiye planned to hold the sixth meeting of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council with Kazakhstan in May.

More than 3,000 Turkish-owned companies are active in Kazakhstan, while bilateral trade reached $8.95 billion in the January-November 2025 period.

On the economic front, Yılmaz said Turkish contractors had undertaken 541 projects worth more than $30 billion in Kazakhstan so far and were ready to take on new work wherever needed.

He also pointed to Kazakhstan’s natural resources, production capacity and strategic location as grounds for stronger energy cooperation, saying Türkiye was ready to work with Kazakh partners on exploration, production, transport, storage and marketing, including possible technical and operational support for shipments of Kazakh crude through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.