President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev paid an official visit to France on Nov. 4-5, meeting with French President Emmanual Macron and top business leaders. In a rapidly changing geopolitical landscape, Tokayev’s visit to France, his second in two years, signals a deepening strategic partnership with France, one of the European Union’s (EU) most influential states.
According to Michael Levystone, a French researcher focusing on Central Asia and a PhD student at the Europes-Eurasia Research Center (CREE) of Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO), there are substantial opportunities for French investors in Kazakhstan. “A wide array of opportunities may present itself to French investors in Kazakhstan in agricultural machinery, connectivity to help materialize Président Tokaeyv’s undisputable will to modernize and expand Kuryk and Aktau ports handling and export capacities,” he told The Astana Times.
According to Michael Levystone, French interests in Kazakhstan mainly focus on natural resources, such as uranium and oil. “France has considered Kazakhstan a partner of one kind in Central Asia since the signing of their strategic partnership agreement in Paris by then Presidents Sarkozy and Nazarbayev. It is with Kazakhstan that France enjoys the most substantial economic ties, six or seven times as big as those existing between France and Uzbekistan, the other putative France’s Central Asian strategic partner,” said Levystone.
“Overall, France and Kazakhstan are engaged on the same path in the fight against climate change, sharing a common goal to reduce GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions. In line with the 2015 Paris Agreement, Kazakhstan has committed itself to reach carbon neutrality up to 2060,” said Levystone.
