Between Emmanuel Macron and Kassym-Jomart Tokaïev, a Franco-Kazakh partnership under the eye of Moscow

The French President, Emmanuel Macron, and the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokaïev, at the Elysée Palace, in Paris, November 5, 2024. LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP Between Emmanuel Macron and Kassym-Jomart Tokaïev, it has become an end-of-year habit. With the honors of a state visit, the French president received his Kazakhstan counterpart in Paris on Tuesday, November 5. “For a spectacular strengthening of our relations”, we promise at the Elysée. “All-round development! », enthuses a Kazakh diplomatic source. A year after Emmanuel Macron’s trip to Astana, the opulent capital built in the middle of the steppe, Kassym-Jomart Tokaïev found in the Elysian gardens the two Kazakh greyhounds that he had then given him. Since then, after a tumultuous beginning far from the steppes, Jules and Jeanne have adapted to Parisian life and appeared, on Tuesday, at the feet of the two presidents, wise and obedient. “Dog diplomacy…”, quips Emmanuel Macron’s entourage. Several agreements and contracts were concluded on Tuesday, including one by Alstom, to supply electric locomotives. But, above all, Kazakhstan, five times the size of France, with only 20 million inhabitants, attracts for its wealth of raw materials. The former Soviet republic, the economically most powerful country in Central Asia, supplies France with nearly 40% of its uranium. The two “partners” having increased cooperation on the atom over the years, Paris hopes in exchange that EDF will be chosen by Astana for the construction of its first nuclear power plant. “The road is long, the momentum is good,” whispers a senior French diplomat. But no agreement has been signed. “More and more dependent on Moscow” After the referendum which, in October, opened the way to the resumption of civil nuclear power despite the trauma born from the health damage from Soviet tests, Kassym-Jomart Tokaïev promised that the future power station will be entrusted to an international consortium. Chinese and South Korean competitors are in the running. But the main contender is Rosatom, the Russian giant, the nuclear arm of the Kremlin. “As is often the case with the Kazakhs, the solution will be convoluted. Everyone will have a share within the consortium. But, as usual, the Russians will have final control, warns Vera Grantseva, Kazakhstan expert at Sciences Po. Because it is a fact: Astana is becoming more and more dependent on Moscow. » Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers Kazakhstan wants to become the essential commercial link between China and Europe Read later Since in January 2022 Kassym-Jomart Tokaïev had to count on the support, political but above all military, of the Vladimir Kremlin Putin to quell in violence clashes on an unprecedented scale in three decades of post-Soviet independence, the Kazakh president has strived to showcase his autonomy in relation to his big Russian brother. You have 42.14% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.



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