Since September 4th 2009, Kanat Saudabayev has been Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan; he also serves as the country’s Secretary of State and was previously Ambassador of Kazakhstan to the United States, the United Kingdom and Turkey.
Born in 1946, Mr Saudabayev served as Secretary of State of Kazakhstan since 15 May 2007. He was Kazakhstan's ambassador to the United States from December 2000 until 2007, In Washington, Mr Saudabayev made an important contribution strengthening the strategic partnership between Kazakhstan and the USA in the spheres of security, nuclear disarmament, economy and democratic development. Before this appointment, Ambassador Saudabayev had a long career in the fields of government, diplomacy and the arts.
In 1999 and 2000, he served as the head of the Prime Minister’s Office with the rank of Cabinet member. In the 1990s, he was Kazakhstan’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, and to Turkey.
Working in Moscow from September 1991 through May 1992 as the Plenipotentiary Representative of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic to the USSR, and then, after the Soviet Union collapsed, to the Russian Federation, Mr Saudabayev was a direct participant in and a witness to many crucial events of that time.
Before entering the diplomatic service, Mr Saudabayev had a distinguished cultural career, serving as Kazakhstan’s Chairman of the State Committee of Culture with the rank of Minister, Chairman of the State Film Committee, and Deputy Culture Minister. He began his career as a theatrical producer.
Kanat Saudabayev holds degrees from the Leningrad Institute of Culture and the Academy of Public Sciences of the Central Committee of Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He has a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Kazakh State University and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Moscow State University. Mr Saudabayev is married with three children.