The two-day official visit of President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko to the Republic of Kazakhstan will start on October 8. Deputy head of the Presidential Administration Kostiantyn Yeliseiev told a press briefing that the visit’s scheduled events included a meeting between Poroshenko and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev as well as a business forum. According to Yeliseiev, the visit should see three bilateral agreements signed between Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
Meanwhile, according to the press service of the president of Kazakhstan, the two heads of state will discuss in Astana the implementation of the Minsk Accords as well as economic and trade cooperation. The talks are also expected to touch upon priority areas of cooperation in the coal industry, transport and logistics sector, agriculture, and other fields.
In addition, according to Minister of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine Volodymyr Demchyshyn, the Ukrainian side expects an agreement on deliveries of uranium concentrate from Kazakhstan to be reached during the talks in Astana.
COMMENTARY
“THE PARTIES WILL FOCUS ON ECONOMIC INTERACTION IN CERTAIN FIELDS”
Dosym SATPAEV, director of the Kazakhstan Risk Assessment Group, Almaty:
“Since the summer of past year, Kazakhstan has said quite often that in spite of the participation of our country in the Eurasian Economic Union, and despite the fact that Russia is in conflict with Ukraine, it is not going to review its relations with Ukraine. Moreover, the Kazakh government is ready to maintain a close and active relationship with Ukraine in various fields. It should be noted that there have been several business forums with the participation of Kazakh and Ukrainian businesspeople over the past year and a half, and there have been statements to the effect that Kazakhstan businesses are ready to come to Ukraine, just as, indeed, Ukrainian businesses can effectively cooperate with their Kazakh counterparts. The visit, on the one hand, is intended to emphasize that Kazakhstan sees the current leadership of Ukraine as its legitimate government and our country is ready to cooperate in all areas. On the other hand, Kazakhstan wants to show that our multi-vector foreign policy, the traditional basis of our republic’s close relations with various states, has not disappeared.
“In addition, the economic aspect is important as well, despite the fact that Ukraine is not a key trade partner of Kazakhstan for many reasons. Our republic has for many years tried to develop a program of industrial innovations, so it would find very useful the experience of Ukraine, which has traditionally been associated with the industrial capacity, human capital, and certain technical and industrial capabilities for producing certain non-commodity goods.
“The visit of the president of Ukraine is, on the one hand, I mean from a political point of view, very important for Kazakhstan because it will demonstrate our neutrality in the conflicts now taking place in the post-Soviet space. On the other hand, the parties will focus on economic interaction between the two states in certain areas, although I do not expect any breakthrough projects to be launched. Still, the visit is highly important from a diplomatic point of view.
“With regard to discussing implementation of the Minsk Accords during the visit, Kazakhstan has repeatedly called on all parties to the conflict to abide by them. The Kazakh government’s stance is the same as that of some European countries. At the same time, we should not forget that Kazakhstan has always tried to act as a moderator in the Ukrainian-Russian relations. It had repeatedly offered its territory as a platform to negotiate, but then Alexander Lukashenko seized the initiative. However, the Kazakh government still desires to act to a certain extent as a mediator in the Ukrainian-Russian negotiations, the more so that internal talks of the so-called moderate Syrian opposition have just recently ended in Astana, which for some reason was chosen as the platform for these negotiations. It is possible that they are not satisfied with the negotiations held in Moscow. This again suggests that Kazakhstan continues to position itself as a moderator for resolution of certain disputes. I think that, most likely, the leadership of Kazakhstan will use the coming meeting to once again underline its readiness to offer a platform for talks, provided that Ukraine and other participants of the negotiation process wish to use it.
“On the other hand, Kazakhstan is somewhat short of diplomatic resources and tools to influence this process, so one should not overestimate the role of Kazakhstan on the issue. The only thing that we can offer is a platform for negotiations.”
Do you expect an agreement on the supply of uranium concentrate to Ukraine from Kazakhstan to be signed during this visit, as reported by the media?
“Yes, I heard about it. It should be noted that Kazakhstan is a major supplier of uranium to the US for that nation’s nuclear power plants. Kazakhstan is among the market leaders in the global uranium mining and is actively trying to upgrade its uranium industry to enable it to produce output with high value added. Kazakhstan would benefit from Ukraine’s participation as a partner that can contribute to the development of our nuclear complex in terms of its modernization and introducing innovations. I think that cooperation between Kazakhstan and Ukraine in this field will be fruitful.
“Russian, Japanese, Chinese, French, Canadian companies have entered the nuclear sector of Kazakhstan, and the entry of some Ukrainian entities will be approved if it fits Kazakhstan’s strategy aimed at modernization of our nuclear industry.”
And what about the prospects of cooperation in military technology sphere, given the fact that after the Russian aggression started in the past year, Ukrainian defense industry began to produce new competitive weapon systems?
“We should not overestimate the potential for military cooperation between Kazakhstan and Ukraine, because Kazakhstan receives Russian weapons at a somewhat reduced price as a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. There are some risks there, though, because from the standpoint of national security, I see the extreme dependence of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan on one supplier, that is, Russia, as a threat. For us, it would be advantageous to have several arms suppliers, allowing us to better protect the national security interests.
“Should Ukraine offer some interesting military projects at a reasonable price for Kazakhstan, our country will be ready to cooperate in the field of defense, the more so that we already cooperate with other countries, including Israel and Turkey. Even though the military technology sphere is substantially monopolized by Russia, Kazakhstan would perceive Ukraine as a pretty good partner, provided it puts forward good offers priced at optimal levels.”
