Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wants to promote cooperation with Kazakhstan in the field of green hydrogen and thus tie the Central Asian region more closely to Europe.
Together with the EU, Germany will launch projects for infrastructure in the areas of digital, energy and transport, said the Green politician on Monday during a visit to the former Soviet republic in the capital Astana. The EU initiative "Global Gateway" plays a central role in this.
With this initiative, the EU intends to invest up to 300 billion euros in the infrastructure of emerging and developing countries. The project competes with the "New Silk Road" that China has been working on in many countries for years. Kazakhstan and also Uzbekistan - the next stop on Baerbock's journey - traditionally have close ties to their big neighbors China and Russia.
Meeting with Kazakh Foreign Minister
A hydrogen project in the Caspian Sea region is an example of a common and sustainable future, said Baerbock after a meeting with Kazakh Foreign Minister Muchtar Tleuberdi. From 2030, wind energy could produce three million tons of green hydrogen there by electrolysis with water from the Caspian Sea.
Without naming China, Baerbock said other countries are trying to expand their influence in many parts of the world, "not only with military force, but also through economic deals that hide a web of dependencies". Germany wants other economic relations - "fair, on an equal footing, without gag loans and without a hidden agenda".
Kazakhstan, with a population of just 19 million, is the ninth largest country in the world. It is Germany's most important economic partner in Central Asia and has large raw material reserves. In total, more than 200 German companies are active in the country.
Refugees accepted from Russia
At the United Nations, Kazakhstan abstained from votes condemning Russia's war against Ukraine and the annexation of Ukrainian territory. In January there was serious unrest there with more than 200 dead. Initial resentment about increased fuel prices turned into violent riots critical of the government. In the meantime, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has also brought Russian soldiers into the country.
In the summer, however, Tokaev said at a panel discussion with Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin that he would not recognize "quasi-state areas" such as the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, which have since been annexed by Moscow, as independent states. Kazakhstan later took in 200,000 Russians fleeing Putin's partial mobilization.
After talks with Prime Minister Alikhan Smajylow, Baerbock met with representatives of civil society. In the afternoon, a visit to the memorial for prisoners of the Soviet women's prison Alzhir was on the agenda. More than 18,000 women were interned there by 1953, 8,000 of them for up to ten years.
