The border starts in the west at the Caspian Sea and runs in a broadly west–east direction to the tripoint with China, though in places it is extremely convoluted.

The border consists almost entirely of a series of overland lines traversing the Eurasian Steppe, though in sections rivers are utilised, such as the Maly Uzen, Ural and Uy.

After the Communists took power in 1917 and created the Soviet Union it was decided to divide Central Asia into ethnically-based republics in a process known as National Territorial Delimitation (or NTD).

[4] Though indeed the Soviets were concerned at the possible threat of pan-Turkic nationalism,[5] as expressed for example with the Basmachi movement of the 1920s, closer analysis informed by the primary sources paints a much more nuanced picture than is commonly presented.

[11] On 26 August 1920 the Kirghiz Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic (KASSR, located within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, RSFSR) was created from these four provinces (briefly joined together in this period in the short-lived Alash Autonomy), with the northern border of the ASSR essentially following that of the former four oblasts, though adjusted in places to reflect local demographics; however, disputes over specific areas of the boundary continued into the following year.

[26][2] Negotiations on border delimitation took place from 1999 to 2005, with a final treaty being approved in Moscow by Presidents Vladimir Putin and Nursultan Nazarbayev on 18 January 2005.