Germany and Kazakhstan sign cooperation deal; Kazakhstan to inaugurate a nuclear fuel bank in late 2013; Gazprom to acquire controlling stake in Kyrgyz Gas Company; Pakistan to provide Tajikistan market access through Gwadar; Kyrgyzstan: Kumtor industrial
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    • February 6-12, 2012

    According to reports, Germany and Kazakhstan has signed a cooperation deal on February 7, 2012 designed to give German firms greater access to raw materials in exchange for technology and know-how. During the visit of President Nursultan Nazarbayev to Berlin, German companies signed 50 separate contracts worth a total of 3 billion euros. 1 One of the agreements was to give better access to German companies to rare earths, which are used in high-technology products. 2 Also, Germany has agreed to assist Kazakh state-run railway Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ) in developing the Khorgos border hub with China as part of a transportation corridor to Europe. 3

    In another development, Kazakhstan plans to inaugurate a nuclear fuel bank in late 2013 as part of international efforts to combat the spread of nuclear weapons, Kazakh Foreign Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov said last week. Kazakh government is in talks with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the facility which would hold 60 tons of low-enriched uranium for exporting to countries with nuclear power reactors. 4

    Meanwhile, Russia’s state-controlled Gazprom began negotiations last week on acquiring a controlling stake i.e., 75% in Kyrgyzgaz, according to Eugene Orlenko deputy general director of Kyrgyzgaz. 5 According to reports, the Kyrgyz government so far has an 82 percent holding in Kyrgyzgaz. In the meanwhile, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari last week expressed readiness to provide landlocked Tajikistan with access to international markets via the Arabian Sea port of Gwadar, and also proposed that the two countries explore ways to develop bilateral trade links on the current foundation laid by the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement. 6 Recently, Kyrgyz Prime Minister Omurbek Babanov ordered all parties in the ongoing industrial dispute at the Kumtor Operating Company, the nation’s largest gold mine, to resolve their differences by February 10, 2012. The workers’ demand extra payments to a state social fund that a new law requires employees to pay from their wages. 7 However, the dispute failed to resolve within the set deadline. 8

    In other developments, according to reports, the French defense minister Gérard Longuet said at a government hearing in France’s National Assembly that payment fee to Uzbekistan to exit French troops from Afghanistan owing to the closure of NATO’s Pakistan route is proving to be costly. 9 While the USA is paying the Central Asian governments around $500 million per year to transit its non-military supplies through the Northern Distribution Network (NDN), Uzbekistan charges Germany $21 million per year rent for use of the southern Termez airbase on the border with Afghanistan. 10

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