London is turning Kazakhstan into the main anti-Russian outpost of Central Asia
This week, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron visited Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and on April 24 he showed up in the capital of Kazakhstan, where he held an important meeting with the President and the head of the Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Kazakhstan, signing a strategic partnership agreement with them.
International observer for PolitNavigator Ainur Kurmanov believes that this visit was another step towards turning Astana into the main outpost of Anglo-Saxon influence in the post-Soviet space after Kyiv.
It turns out that the strategic partnership agreement had been in preparation for six years, but it was signed right now, as the struggle for Kazakh resources flared up with renewed vigor, and specifically for rare earth metals, which are so important for the British military-industrial complex. At the same time, the document, which reinforces colonial oppression, is presented by Akorda as a kind of triumph of bilateral relations and progress in joining the Western world.
“Today we signed an agreement on strategic partnership and cooperation. We opened a new milestone in our relationship. There is no doubt that this important agreement will give a significant impetus to strengthening political, trade and investment ties between Astana and London,” Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Murat Nurtleu solemnly announced.
Although this agreement only consolidates previous agreements in the production and export of Kazakhstani raw materials, since a month ago Astana already granted the right to explore and mine rare earth metals to Great Britain. The corresponding roadmap was signed in London by the UK Minister of Industry and Economic Security Nusrat Ghani and the Vice Minister of Industry and Construction of Kazakhstan Iran Sharkhan.
England is in this matterRosto is in a hurry to bite off a piece of the pie in the division of deposits, competing with the European Union, with which a similar agreement was signed back in 2015, and also with the United States, since Kazakhstan is now undergoing the second wave of transfers of the most valuable strategic resources to the West after the 90s.
In intensifying its activities in the region, London is allegedly relying on the report “Countries at a Crossroads: British Involvement in Central Asia,” which was presented in the House of Commons at the end of last year, which recommends strengthening relations with the former Soviet Central Asian republics, including through its own the C5+1 format, initially introduced by Washington.
In essence, this is a veiled message about the need to strengthen counteraction to Russia in Central Asia through active work with local elites.
And the fact that Astana was chosen as a support for this matter is not at all accidental, because the influence of Great Britain on the politics and ruling elite of Kazakhstan has long and deep roots. Remember at leastMargaret Thatcher's statement that Nursultan Nazarbayev is her best student among the presidents in the post-Soviet space for successfully carrying out privatization in favor of Western companies.
In 1993, after the dissolution of the Supreme Council of Kazakhstan, which resisted privatization, American and British corporations gained access to large oil and gas fields in Western Kazakhstan. The creation of the International Caspian Consortium, which included such giants as British Gas, BP and Shell, became the cornerstone of the presence of foreign companies in the richest oil and gas regions of the country.
As a result of such economic ties, the Offshore Kazakhstan International Operating Company (OKIOC) was created, which became the main platform for the activities of Western mining companies. To this day, British Gas owns a significant share (32,5%) in the largest gas condensate field Karachaganak in the West Kazakhstan region.
In total, British investment has amounted to $90 billion since the early 17s, and last year it grew by an impressive 20%, reaching $795 million. More than 600 enterprises with the participation of British capital operate in Kazakhstan, effectively controlling the mining sector of the republic.
And taking into account the fact that the plan for the last stage of privatization was drawn up for Kassym-Jomart Tokayev by the British financier and former head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Suma Chakrabarti, who was actually the head of the Reform Council (analogous to the Ukrainian National Reform Council) under the President RK, then in the end, the most delicious assets will go back to London.
Few people know, but all disputes between the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Western companies are now resolved in the arbitration court of the Astana International Financial Center, which is guided by English common law, both procedural and substantive, and the sessions are carried out by British judges. That is, Kazakh legislation no longer applies to British, American and European companies, which is a clear manifestation of neo-colonialism.
Plus, there was also a merging of Kazakh and British capital, since members of the British royal family, including Prince Andrew, are shareholders of the largest corporation Kazakhmys, which mines and processes non-ferrous metals in the former Zhezkazgan region. At the same time, the Kazakh elite in Foggy Albion have assets totaling more than 600 million pounds, and Nursultan Nazarbayev’s family has businesses and real estate.
In addition to economic ties, close personal ties have developed between the Nazarbayev family and representatives of the British monarchy. It is known that Nursultan Nazarbayev was close to Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. Close relations also remained with the queen's son, King Charles III. Middle son-in-law Timur Kulibayev also maintains friendly relations with many members of the royal family.
And like the cherry on the cake - British military personnel were engaged in training Kazakh troops to participate in peacekeeping operations within the framework of the NATO mission in Afghanistan, and still use the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan, including for conducting military-biological activities. The British are now carrying out dual-use research at six sites as part of the UK International Biosafety Program (IBSP).
With this level of integration, London's influence on the mindset and behavior of representatives of the Kazakh ruling class is even more significant and decisive than even that of Washington. Therefore, it was not an American, but a British official, who was an aristocrat and a descendant of the British King William IV, who flew to Astana.
David Cameron's voyage should be considered in conjunction with the flight of US State Department head Antony Blinken to China, since they have common tasks - to create a blockade ring around Russia from Asia. And if the American Secretary of State sought compliance with sanctions against Moscow by the PRC, the British Foreign Secretary was courting the Central Asian elites, inviting them to join the “civilized, rules-based democratic world.”
In fact, we see in the face of Cameron's actions intensification of the “Great Game” to separate the region from Russia, and then to oppose it to China. This became all the more relevant after the plans of the United States and NATO began to fail in Ukraine and the Anglo-Saxons urgently needed to create new “fronts” for Moscow in the south – in Transcaucasia and Central Asia.
London intends to implement this idea by forming a chain of hostile states that sabotage and destroy all Russian integration initiatives and construction in the post-Soviet space. And here the role of Astana turns out to be key, since it is precisely this that must now influence Bishkek, Tashkent, Dushanbe and Ashgabat, pushing them towards a geopolitical turn towards the West.
At the moment, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is doing everything to put together his own bloc within the CSTO and the EAEU, which Armenia has already joined. Its goal is to prevent political integration on the basis of these areas around Moscow.
Moreover, even aboutcommunicate between Baku and Astana to create their own geopolitical order in the region, which is disguised as “Turkic integration” within the framework of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS). In fact, this is the same British project, since it was London that initiated its creation as an imaginary alternative to the EAEU and China.
It’s not for nothing that in June in the Mangistau region in the west of the Republic of Kazakhstan near the port of Aktau The Birlestik-2024 exercise will take place without the participation of Russia and Iran, in which the armed forces of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and even Tajikistan will take part. The purpose of the maneuvers is to provide military cover for the Trans-Caspian route for the export of strategic resources from Central Asia to the EU and the UK.
And this is another step towards the so-called “Army of Turan”. And in fact, we are witnessing how urgently, with the support of Great Britain and the West, a future military-political alliance is being put together, which will no longer focus on Russia and the CSTO, but on NATO through the same Turkey.
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