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"Without gag loans and hidden agenda": Baerbock is looking for new energy partners in Central Asia

2022-11-01T12:47:49.328Z


"Without gag loans and hidden agenda": Baerbock is looking for new energy partners in Central Asia Created: 11/01/2022 13:46 By: Victoria Krumbeck Annalena Baerbock travels through Central Asia. She is looking for new partners for the EU and for energy projects. Munich/Astana – Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock set off for Central Asia with an entire business delegation. The Green Party polit


"Without gag loans and hidden agenda": Baerbock is looking for new energy partners in Central Asia

Created: 11/01/2022 13:46

By: Victoria Krumbeck

Annalena Baerbock travels through Central Asia.

She is looking for new partners for the EU and for energy projects.

Munich/Astana – Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock set off for Central Asia with an entire business delegation.

The Green Party politician arrived in Kazakhstan on Monday (October 31).

The goal of the trip: Closer cooperation between Europe and the Central Asian states.

Since Russia is no longer an energy partner, new alliances are being sought to close the gap.

The first order has already been placed with a German company.

Baerbock in Kazakhstan: Looking for new energy partners

The Foreign Minister has clear goals.

Together with the EU, Germany wants to work with Kazakhstan on infrastructure projects, as Baerbock said on Monday in the Kazakh capital Astana.

This particularly affects the areas of digital, energy and transport.

The projects are supported by the EU initiative "Global Gateway".

The EU wants to invest up to 300 billion euros in the infrastructure of emerging and developing countries.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Kazakh Foreign Minister Muchtar Tleuberdi.

© Fabian Sommer/dpa

The EU is thus taking action against the influence of China and Russia in the former Soviet republics in Central Asia.

Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan traditionally have a rather closer relationship with the two states.

For years, China has been expanding the infrastructure in over 100 countries with its “New Silk Road” project.

After the energy break with Russia, Germany needs new partners.

The region on the Caspian Sea is particularly suitable for this.

The area is exemplary for a common and sustainable future, as Baerbock said after a meeting with Kazakh Foreign Minister Muchtar Tleuberdi.

Energy supplier Kazakhstan: millions of tons of hydrogen from 2030

The focus is on cooperation in the field of green hydrogen.

From 2030, wind energy could produce three million tons of green hydrogen there by electrolysis with water from the Caspian Sea.

More than 200 German companies are active in the ninth largest country in the world.

One is said to have received an order for the development of a wind farm that corresponds in area to the size of Brandenburg.

Baerbock said Germany wants economic relations that are "fair, on an equal footing, with no gag loans and no hidden agenda."

Other countries would try to expand their influence, "not only with military force, but also through economic deals that hide a network of dependencies," said Baerbock.

She was allegedly referring to China and Russia.

She herself also insists on a change in German China policy.

On Tuesday, Baerbock said in Uzbekistan, with a view to Chancellor Olaf Scholz's trip to China on November 3, "that we as the federal government are writing a new China strategy because the Chinese political system has changed massively in recent years and has changed with it change our China policy”.

In doing so, she directs clear words to the Chancellor.

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Kazakhstan has close ties with Russia.

Violent protests only erupted in January, after which the Kazakh government asked Russia for help.

The cause of the protests were initially the high fuel prices.

However, the demonstrations developed into violent anti-government riots.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev then allowed Russian soldiers into the country, who stopped the protests.

Around 200 people died in the riots.

Kazakhstan did not condemn the Ukraine war.

The country abstained from the UN vote condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the annexation of Ukrainian territories.

But in the summer, at a panel discussion with Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, Tokayev said that he would not recognize “quasi-state areas” such as the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, which have since been annexed by Moscow, as independent states.

Kazakhstan also took in around 200,000 Russians fleeing Putin's partial mobilization.

In addition to the talks with the Kazakh government, Baerbock also met with representatives of civil society on Monday.

On November 1, Foreign Minister Baerbock traveled to Uzbekistan.

(vk/dpa)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-11-01

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