Now is the time for closer EU-Kazakh relations - deputy FM EU Reporter's interview with Roman Vassilenko

Kazakhstan’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Roman Vassilenko, has been in Brussels promoting the potential of the Middle Corridor trade route that links his country with both Europe and China. In an exclusive interview with EU Reporter’s Political Editor Nick Powell, he spoke about the challenges involved and the imperatives behind the rapid pace of constitutional change in Kazakhstan. Caliber.Az reprints the article.

Roman Vassilenko has been busy in Brussels, putting the case to business leaders and opinion-formers that Kazakhstan is a perfect fit for the EU’s global gateway project, both as a logistics hub for transport across Eurasia and as an important trading partner in its own right.

His message is that “if ever there is a time to bring Europe and Kazakhstan -and all Central Asia- closer together, that time is now”. There have been past efforts in the 30 years of his country’s independence and some have borne fruit, notably the enhanced partnership and cooperation agreement which has been fully in force since March 2020.

But the Deputy Foreign Minister is clear that efforts have gone into overdrive as a result of the geopolitical turmoil caused by the conflict in Ukraine. Both European Council President Charles Michel and High Representative Josep Borrell will visit the Kazakh capital, Astana, shortly.

Much focus is on developing the Middle Corridor trade route and Kazakhstan is working to overcome its current constraints, with new and improved railways linking the Chinese border with the Caspian Sea. A shipbuilding programme will increase the number of ferries and oil tankers that take cargo across the Caspian to Azerbaijan, for onward shipment to Europe via Georgia and Turkey.

“It is a challenge”, Roman Vassilenko told me. “We need to have that diversity of options for exporting our goods, we need to benefit from the truly unique geographical position of Kazakhstan in the heart of Eurasia. It will take a lot of time and a lot of money to develop”. Money well spent, he stressed.

It was a route, he argued, that was absolutely needed, not just by Central Asia but also by Europe and China. “It was significant that during the visit of President Xi Jinping to Kazakhstan in September, one of the agreements that were signed was a memorandum of understanding on the transit of goods via the Middle Corridor”.

In the future, Chinese exporters will get their government’s support to use the Middle Corridor, in the same way as the existing support for using the Northern Corridor via Russia. (The Southern Corridor, linking Kazakhstan to Turkey via Iran, is currently restricted to non-sanctioned goods).

The Minister was emphatic that Kazakhstan would not be giving up on exporting oil to Europe via the pipeline that runs to the Russian port of Novorossiysk, despite recent disruption there. However, it was important to develop multiple options for exporting oil.

Kazakhstan’s President Tokayev has continued to meet President Putin at various international gatherings and has been robustly clear to his Russian counterpart that his country doesn’t support the use of force to change borders or any uninvited armed intervention by one country on another’s territory. Roman Vassilenko told me that Kazakhstan is standing by the founding principles of the United Nations.

“We need to return to respect between states and we need to return to the peaceful resolution of conflicts”, he said, adding that the majority of the people of Kazakhstan were extremely concerned about the horrendous conflict in Ukraine and praying for it to end as soon as possible.

The highest honour that can be offered to the leader of another country, a state visit, was given to President Xi of China, when he came to the Kazakh capital, Astana, in September. The Minister wanted to highlight that relations between the two countries were developing very strongly. China is not only one of Kazakhstan’s largest trading partner but an increasingly important investor.

“It’s not in the top five yet but it’s quickly getting there. There is huge potential for expanding our trade, which right now is mostly composed of raw material exports to China” he said, explaining that work was underway to develop agricultural exports as well. Roman Vassilenko characterised it as a very solid relationship, with many interdependencies, pointing to the importance to China of the Middle Corridor and the importance to Kazakhstan of access to the sea via the Chinese port of Lianyungang.

During his visit to Brussels, the Minister took part in a meeting of the Berlin Eurasian Club, a German business initiative that was holding its latest meeting in the capital of the European Union. The meeting heard that as well as its urgent need for Kazakh oil, Europe should be paying more attention to Kazakhstan’s mineral wealth, with mineable reserves of most of the critical raw materials needed for clean energy applications.

The message to the meeting from the European External Action Service was that the EU, which is already Kazakhstan’s largest trading and investment partner, offers rules-based cooperation and technological transfer. Roman Vassilenko told me that European standards are a source of inspiration for countries in Central Asia. He said Kazakhstan welcomed investment in new industries and he pointed to a German-Swedish consortium that was building a solar power station to produce green hydrogen.

On critical raw materials, he said his government had been discussing cooperation with the European Commission for some time. “We are now on the cusp of advancing this relationship to a new level, where we will indeed have an agreement with the European Union on supplying critical raw materials in exchange for European investment and European technologies”, he explained.

The Deputy Foreign Minister said that the EU was also appreciative of the honesty with which President Tokayev was pursuing his far-reaching political reforms, replacing a super-presidential system with one that combines a presidency with a strong parliament. Political parties will be easier to establish and it will also be easier for them to win parliamentary seats. “We would recall, for example, the statements made by the European Union in June, welcoming the results of the referendum, saying of course that more reforms are needed -that’s what President Tokayev is the first to say, the first to promote further reforms and deeper reforms”.

“The President has heard the yearning of the people”, he added. “The important thing is to understand that these are the reforms that we feel we need ourselves and I would only add that partners outside our country need to understand this … that these reforms are genuine. Of course, they can judge for themselves but I would advise to judge us on our deeds, not just words and I’m sure that there will be a lot of concrete things to show”.

Economic reform will go hand in hand with political reform, the Kazakh government acknowledges that protests triggered by price rises last January were justified -until they turned to violence. Improving education, by building new schools and raising teachers’ salaries, as well as investing in rural health care are also examples of the social reforms that are accompanying the constitutional changes.

Roman Vassilenko also said more was being done to improve cooperation with the other four Central Asian republics, with all as equal partners. “We are all together in this effort to build Central Asia as a region that it once was … the heart of the Silk Road. It’s not a job for one day, it’s a job for many years but we are moving along this road”.