Kazakhstan's President zu Scholz: Russia is invincible

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Kazakhstan's President zu Scholz: Russia is invincible

Kazakhstan has close ties to Russia, but also seeks proximity to the West. During the Chancellor's visit, the country's president strongly advocates negotiations for peace in Ukraine.

During Chancellor Olaf Scholz's visit, Kazakh President Kassym-Schomart Tokayev described Russia as invincible and called for quick peace negotiations in the Ukraine war. “Further escalation of the war will lead to irreparable consequences for all of humanity and, first of all, for all countries directly involved in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict,” he said, according to Kazakh news agencies. “It is a fact that Russia is invincible militarily.”

Scholz emphasized that Germany would continue to support Ukraine to defend itself against the Russian attackers. At the same time, he reiterated that he would support a peace conference involving Russia. Now is the time to “see what’s going on,” said Scholz. But Russia must make a contribution by stopping its aggression.

Scholz has been openly promoting a peace process since the end of August. In June, 93 states met for a first peace conference in Switzerland, to which Russia was not invited and which was boycotted by Russia's most important ally, China. The follow-up conference is now to take place with Russia. However, there is no place or date yet.

Tokayev said it remained “an opportunity to achieve peace.” According to him, all peace plans must be examined and hostilities must be stopped. The territorial disputes could then be resolved.

In its war of aggression that has lasted more than two and a half years, Russia has now occupied around a fifth of neighboring Ukraine. But Moscow is claiming further parts. In the fall of 2022, Putin annexed the regions of Kherson, Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia, although the Russian military still only partially controls the regions. Kiev is demanding a withdrawal of Russian armed forces from the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed in 2014.

The former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan has a land border with Russia that is more than 7,600 kilometers long and is closely linked to the great power. At the same time, the country is seeking closer relations with Western countries.

The Chancellor's visit was primarily about closer economic relations. Scholz said he wanted to “do everything we can to improve opportunities for economic relations.” He particularly emphasized the “resilient, precise and continuous cooperation” in the raw materials sector.

With a share of 11.7 percent, Kazakhstan is Germany's third largest oil supplier after Norway and the USA and has partially compensated for the loss of Russian deliveries to the PCK refinery in Schwedt, Brandenburg, after the attack on Ukraine. According to government sources, the country delivered around one million tonnes of crude oil to PCK last year. 1.4 million tons are planned for the current year.

On the sidelines of the visit, an extension of these deliveries beyond the end of 2024 was agreed. Kazakhstan's contractual partners are the German subsidiaries of the Russian state-owned company Rosneft. They hold the majority of PCK, although they are currently under federal trust management.

Rosneft spokesman Burkhard Woelki told the German Press Agency that the contract with Kazakhstan had been extended for an oil delivery of 100,000 tons per month until the end of 2025. Woelki added that it was possible to get more quantities, which would be made flexible.

Tokayev said the chancellor's visit would take the two countries' relations “to a new level.” “Our bilateral cooperation will be expanded in the spirit of a strategic partnership.”

During the visit, agreements were also signed on cooperation between the Kazakh National Bank and the Bundesbank as well as on the establishment of an Institute of Science and Technology at the German-Kazakh University in Almaty and a German-speaking school.

Kazakhstan, with its 20 million inhabitants, is the ninth largest country in the world in terms of area and Germany's most important economic partner in the region. The country has been recording above-average economic growth for years, primarily thanks to trade with its important neighbors Russia and China.

The federal government is not only interested in oil, but also in the gas reserves in Kazakhstan and, in the future, in hydrogen, which is obtained from renewable energies. The country, which is led authoritarianly by Tokayev, also has uranium, iron ore, zinc, copper and gold.

Like the other authoritarian states in the region, Kazakhstan is also criticized for its human rights situation. Freedom of the press and freedom of expression are severely restricted. An originally planned joint press meeting between Tokayev and Scholz was canceled at short notice by the Kazakh side. In Uzbekistan, the Chancellor's first stop on his three-day trip, no joint press meeting was planned from the outset.