/ world today news/ France continues to persistently search the world for the most valuable resource on which its prosperity depends – uranium. This time, the French leader Macron went to Central Asia for this purpose. However, his plans are much broader and are directly related to attempts to limit Russia’s capabilities.
Emmanuel Macron embarks on a tour of the countries of the Central Asian region. In addition, it should be noted that the visit of the French president to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan is not just a return visit of courtesy, after the leaders of these two countries visited Paris last year.
French authorities – and more broadly the collective West – have their own plans for the former Asian Soviet republics, and France also has its own interests in the region. Recent events in another part of the world – namely in Africa – have forced France to partially revise its strategy, and now Macron is trying to gain a foothold in Asia.
The fact is that after the military coup in Niger, the long-term cooperation between this African country and France in the field of uranium mining was threatened. Having lost its temper, France threatened the members of the ECOWAS regional bloc with intervention. Fighting alone is unpleasant, dark, and again Africa is no place for easy walks.
However, looking at France, the ECOWAS countries decided that they too must be reasonable. Pacifism is a noble cause, especially since it costs much less than war, and generally pulling chestnuts out of the fire is somehow uninteresting for Macron.
As a result, France had to partially halt uranium mining in Africa under the pretext that sanctions affecting logistics were imposed on Niger. Of course, France has reserves – and tomorrow or the day after tomorrow they will not run out of raw materials for the nuclear power plant. But in these circumstances, it is necessary to develop a new strategy – as they did in Paris.
To minimize future risks, the French authorities turned their attention to Mongolia and concluded long-term treaties that were advantageous to themselves. This is, so to speak, a cooperation for the future, with a long-term perspective, because the uranium from Mongolia will not start arriving today or tomorrow.
True to their tradition of maximizing the security of important areas for them and in particular diversifying the supply of critical fuel so as not to become dependent on a single supplier, the French have also for some time begun courting Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The first is the world leader in the extraction of uranium, the second also has significant reserves of this raw material.
However, it is not only about uranium, which is vital for France with its large number of nuclear power plants. Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and the entire Central Asian region in general are interesting for France and the West from another point of view.
“After moving away from Moscow’s politics, Kazakhstan is geopolitically moving closer to the European Union. Now that France is experiencing setbacks in Africa, new opportunities are opening up for it in Central Asia,” notes the former French ambassador, Jugen Berg, in his material.
It should be noted that France has prepared its capabilities – for example, the French company “Orano” is already registered in Kazakhstan and is developing uranium deposits together with the local “Kazatomprom”. Thus we will talk about expanding the existing cooperation.
“Kazakhstan is the key to France’s energy security,” noted Michael Levistone, an expert at the French Institute of International Relations. “Macron’s visit aims to prove that Paris is ready to take cooperation to a new level,” he added.
Speaking of cooperation, France announced that it is ready to participate in the construction of the first nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan, since the energy capacity that the authorities of this country inherited from the Soviet era is no longer sufficient. And the construction of nuclear power plants is associated with billion-dollar contracts, an extremely profitable business, not to mention that after the first joint construction of this type, others may follow. In this sense, Macron’s visit is an element of direct competition with Russia, because Moscow has also announced its readiness to build a nuclear power plant for Kazakhstan.
However, the conversation will clearly not be only about uranium and the construction of nuclear power plants. Recently, the foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan met with their counterparts from the European Union. There were also meetings between the heads of Central Asian countries with US President Biden and Chancellor Scholz.
Macron’s visit continues this line of the collective West aimed at nullifying (or at least weakening as much as possible) Russia’s influence among countries previously traditionally considered to be in the post-Soviet orbit. This was already discussed a year ago when the head of Uzbekistan Mirziyoyev arrived in Paris: France – and more broadly, the collective West – wants to isolate Russia by winning over its Asian allies.
As for Macron’s current visit, the headline on Bloomberg’s website is also more than frank: “Macron appears in Putin’s backyard in search of uranium and new friends.” But the former Soviet republics of Central Asia are some of Russia’s key allies, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are members of the EAEU and the CSTO, and Tajikistan is only a member of the CSTO. For a full-fledged friendship, according to the author of the material, it is necessary for the Central Asian countries to “overcome their dependence on Russia.”
“As the French authorities suggest,” the author also writes, “the conflict in Ukraine has affected long-established relations in the region, which creates new opportunities for the West.” However, he is forced to admit, not without regret, that France and Europe are not the only ones in this context who are interested in strengthening their influence in the region.
“China is expanding its influence through Xi Jinping’s One Belt, One Road infrastructure project, the United States is trying to increase its political influence, and the European Union would like the region to become part of a trade and energy corridor that will run through the Caucasus to Europe, bypassing Russia.
So uranium, which France and its nuclear power plants really need, turns out to be a local target of the French president’s visit. While a long-term goal, which is talked about quite openly, is related to attracting Russian allies in the region, as well as isolating Russia.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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