BERLIN
\nGerman Chancellor Olaf Scholz embarks on his first visit to Central Asia on Sunday, travelling to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan as Berlin looks for new markets and sources of energy and minerals in the wake of the Ukraine war.
\nHe already has some key deals under his belt. Kazakh crude started flowing through the Druzhba pipeline last year, keeping Berlin\u2019s Schwedt refinery running after the European Union imposed sanctions on Moscow, and Russian supplies dropped off.
\n\u201cThis marked a completely new direction in bilateral cooperation, as no Kazakh oil had previously flowed through this pipeline,\u201d a Kazakh government official said.
\nScholz\u2019s visit will give some clues on where Germany wants to take the relationship next.
\nOn top of the oil, Kazakhstan has more than two trillion cubic meters of natural gas reserves, according to Kazakh government data.
\nMany German companies who shut down businesses in Russia – historically a key hub for Central Asia – have set up their own sales offices and operations across the region, Eduard Kinsbruner, Central Asia regional director at the German Eastern Business Association, said.
\nGerman groups have been negotiating contracts in chemicals, skilled labour, renewable energy, logistics and education among other sectors, Kinsbruner added.
\nMany of those contracts are expected to be signed during Scholz\u2019s visit, he added.
\nHYDROGEN HOPES
\nKazakhstan – seven times the size of Germany – has lots of space, as well as sun and wind, for energy projects.
\nIn Kazakhstan\u2019s southwestern region of Mangystau, Germany-based SVEVIND Energy Group is developing what it says is one of the world\u2019s largest green hydrogen projects, with a planned 40 gigawatts of renewable power capacity.
\nGerman President Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited in June last year.
\nGermany\u2019s new push is already showing up in the statistics.
\nIn 2023, Kazakhstan exported 8.5 million tons of oil to Germany, accounting for 11.7% of Germany\u2019s total oil imports, and up from round 6.5 million tons before the Ukraine war.
\nThat jump made Kazakhstan Germany\u2019s third-largest supplier after Norway and the United States, data from Germany\u2019s Federal Statistics Office showed.
\nGerman investments in Kazakhstan rose by 64% last year compared with 2022, according to data from Kazakh Invest, a government agency.
\n\u201cBecause of the regimes and the political system, Central Asia wasn\u2019t a top priority for Germany,\u201d Stefan Meister, a Central Asia expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations, said. \u201cBut the war has fundamentally changed this dynamic.\u201d
\nTrade between Kazakhstan and Germany almost doubled after Russia\u2019s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, with turnover rising by 89.5% in 2022 compared with the previous year, according to data from the German Eastern Business Association.
\n\u2018LOOK TO THE FUTURE\u2019
\n\u201cWhen we look to the future, we see great potential,\u201d a German government official said ahead of the trip.
\n\u201cWe will need gas for two more decades. The tenders for new gas power plants (in Germany), which will all be hydrogen-ready, are currently in their final stages. This means they will need to get gas from somewhere.\u201d
\nBehind all the new plans, there are still old historical and geographic realities.
\nKazakhstan may offer an alternative to Russia for Germany. But it is also weighed down by an outdated Soviet-era grid and complex tangle of red tape.
\n\u201cIf it (massive renewables expansion) is complicated in Germany, it\u2019s much more complicated in a country like Kazakhstan,\u201d said Thomas O\u2019Donnell, an energy expert at Berlin\u2019s Free University.
\nRussia still has significant influence in Kazakhstan, which has avoided taking sides in the Ukraine war. Most tellingly of all, that Druzhba pipeline carrying Kazakh oil to Berlin, crosses over Russian territory.
\nSo a relationship with Russia, of a sort, will persist.
\n\u201cOn one hand, we support Ukraine,\u201d said Meister of the German Council on Foreign Relations. \u201cOn the other, our businesses still need resources.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BERLIN German Chancellor Olaf Scholz embarks on his first visit to Central Asia on Sunday, travelling to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan as Berlin looks for new markets and sources of energy and minerals in the wake of the Ukraine war. He already has some key deals under his belt. Kazakh crude started flowing through the Druzhba […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431094,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-431070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n