Germany Eyes Inexperienced Hydrogen Potential in Kazakhstan – The Diplomat

On the heels of EU Council President Charles Michel’s visits to Astana and Tashkent final week, this week German Overseas Minister Annalena Baerbock is treading an identical path with related targets. 

In an announcement earlier than the go to, Baerbock didn’t conceal the overarching geopolitical intent of her go to. 

“Russia’s battle in opposition to Ukraine is inflicting all of the successor states of the Soviet Union to wonder if they, too, would possibly someday face a problem to their sovereignty,” a assertion attributed to Baerbock and posted on October 30 started. The assertion went on to conclude, “As a way to make use of the alternatives, we should ultimately push ahead with networking central Asia with Europe extra successfully.” In a jab arguably meant for Moscow, Baerbock said that “Germany and Europe provide trustworthy and truthful alternatives that aren’t meant to create new dependencies or depend on monetary leverage.” In closing, the German minister highlighted that “[t]o my thoughts, a partnership between equals means making it clear over and over that financial growth and human rights are two sides of the identical coin.”

In previewing the journey to Central Asia, the German Overseas Ministry highlighted Uzbekistan’s giant inhabitants and Kazakhstan’s giant power reserves, along with the truth that 85 % of all German commerce with Central Asian nations is with Kazakhstan. 

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Baerbock stopped first in Astana, Kazakhstan’s capital, on October 31 the place she met with high Kazakh officers together with Kazakh Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov and Overseas Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi. 

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The German Overseas Workplace distilled Baerbock’s press convention together with her Kazakh counterpart into three details: A recognition of Kazakhstan’s interdependencies with Russia and reward for its having “taken a stand for worldwide legislation”; the nation’s inexperienced hydrogen potential; and an announcement that “[s]ustainable development will solely happen the place human rights are assured.”

Through the go to, Baerbock introduced that Germany would open a “hydrogen diplomacy” workplace in Astana, with ambitions to turn out to be a “a hub for the trade of specialists and accountable folks from each nations sooner or later” with the goal of decreasing emissions. Additionally within the inexperienced power vein is a just lately introduced $50 billion deal underneath which Dresden, Germany-based Svevind Power Group will accomplice with Kazakhstan to construct a 20 gigawatt inexperienced hydrogen plant powered by wind and photo voltaic. Based on Bloomberg, “The electrolysers [at the plant] will be capable of produce as much as 2 million tons of inexperienced hydrogen per 12 months from 2032, the equal to about one-fifth of the EU goal for imported inexperienced hydrogen in 2030.”

Greater than Michel did throughout his visits to the area, Baerbock hammered dwelling a connection between respect for human rights and sustainable growth. 

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On November 1, Baerbock met together with her Uzbek counterpart, Vladimir Norov, in Tashkent. Based on reporting from the German paper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, “Baerbock stated that Germany wished a partnership on an equal footing, with no tough loans, and with transparency.” One may learn that as a bar aimed toward each Russia and China. She framed, once more, financial success as a product of stability and enhancements in human rights.

Baerbock is accompanied on her journey to Central Asia by a German enterprise delegation, described in some media as comprised of power and infrastructure specialists. Her go to to Uzbekistan will conclude with a visit to Samarkand, to see an irrigation challenge being constructed with Berlin’s assist in addition to a mining operation.

Power and enterprise issues type the core of Europe’s connections to Central Asia, and Russian aggression in Ukraine is the proximate motivation for searching for deeper ties at this exact second. Baerbock, extra so than Michel, made an effort to bridge German — and European — considerations within the human rights sphere with wider financial and political ambitions. It’s an effort to push each Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan towards the conclusion that in the event that they need to see their respective reform applications succeed they’ll’t ignore human rights commitments, whereas on the identical time providing assist in these efforts at a time when the area’s different companions — Russia and China — could also be in any other case engaged.