David Cameron to visit Kazakhstan on his Central Asian tour
Over a decade since his inaugural visit to Astana, David Cameron, a heavyweight of British politics, makes a significant return to Kazakhstan, this time as the Foreign Secretary, to finalize a Strategic Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, marking a pivotal moment in the relations between the two nations. Delve deeper into the forthcoming visit and the prospects for collaboration in the comprehensive coverage provided by Kazinform International News Agency.
Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton
David William Donald Cameron was born into an aristocratic family and is a descendant of King William IV. He studied at Eton College, a prestigious private boarding school for boys, which has provided secondary education to 20 UK prime ministers.
David Cameron served as Prime Minister from 2010 to 2016, leading Britain’s first coalition government in nearly 70 years and, at the 2015 General Election, forming the first majority Conservative government in the UK for almost two decades.
Since assuming power in 2010, the issue of the UK's membership in the European Union has become one of the most debated topics. Cameron advocated for preserving the United Kingdom’s membership in the EU but favored greater autonomy for the UK within the bloc.
Despite the European Union agreeing to grant special status to the United Kingdom, the referendum on the country’s withdrawal from the EU, which occurred in 2016, resulted in Brexit. Consequently, David Cameron resigned as head of government and leader of the Conservative Party.
Meanwhile, he became the first UK Prime Minister to pay a state visit to Kazakhstan in the summer of 2013. The cumulative value of contracts signed throughout his visit to the Central Asian country exceeded £700 million.
After a seven-year hiatus, in November last year, David Cameron was awarded the title of Lord Chipping Norton, and with it a seat in the House of Lords, which allowed him to take the chair of Foreign Secretary.
Agenda for the visit
During the anticipated two-day visit to the Kazakh capital, the Foreign Secretary will meet with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Murat Nurtleu, and Minister of Science and Higher Education Sayasat Nurbek.
A significant milestone expected from these meetings is the signing of the Strategic Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between Kazakhstan and the United Kingdom, which culminates nearly six years of negotiation and collaborative effort.
This new-generation document is intended to bolster relations across key areas including trade and investment, security, intellectual property protection, energy and mining, transportation, environmental sustainability, banking and financial services, employment and social policy, as well as science and education.
Additionally, there are plans to sign several bilateral agreements covering various domains such as education, including the establishment of a branch of Coventry University, healthcare, including the localization of pharmaceutical production in Kazakhstan, and transportation.
The interests of the British partners
“The British government is committed to engaging with Central Asian via the lens of specific sustainable development goals, but these also largely correspond to the UK government's interest in investment opportunities,” Rico Isaacs, Professor of international politics at the University of Lincoln, told Kazinform.
According to him, the key priority of the UK in interaction with Kazakhstan, first of all, is to improve the landscape in which British businesses can make investments and development of bilateral trade.
“In a post-Brexit environment, the UK government is scrambling around trying engage more and better in regions it is has long neglected,” Professor Isaacs believes. “The culmination of this initial strategy will be the planned C5+1 summit to be held at some point this year,” he said.
“Kazakhstan will remain central to UK engagement, not least it has the most friendly investment environment for British business,” he says.
Rico Isaacs explained that the Republic of Kazakhstan is important for the UK’s interests in ensuring a stable and secure supply of critical minerals.
Critical minerals
A promising area for partnership could involve collaboration on the extraction, processing, and development of innovative industries that utilize critical minerals. These minerals encompass metals and rare elements crucial for modern technologies and economic prosperity.
The UK’s industrial sector currently has a demand for such minerals. Between 2022 and 2023, the UK has signed several agreements and memoranda with countries including Australia, Canada, Japan, Mongolia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Zambia, and Kazakhstan.
Negotiations are underway with Indonesia and the United States to finalize the relevant documents. Kazakhstan is the only country with which the United Kingdom has made the most progress.
A year after the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on Strategic Partnership in the field of critical minerals, a Roadmap for cooperation in this area was approved in March. This roadmap encompasses three key areas: general cooperation in geology, personnel training, and technology transfer.
An intriguing aspect is that the minimum level of raw material processing required for investors to export products from Kazakhstan corresponds to the average processing level. In other words, it refers to products with low technological complexity or those that are semi-finished.
The changing approach of British diplomacy
British diplomacy is reevaluating its approach to Central Asian countries, aiming for a more systematic partnership. This shift is partly influenced by the report Countries at crossroads: UK engagement in Central Asia, released by the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee in November.
Unlike the European Union, the UK has yet to publish a Strategy for Central Asia that would establish clear guidelines and principles for cooperation, dispelling speculation about the aims of the partnership.
“For the UK, there is to be a document that clarifies what they expect or what they want to achieve in Central Asia, and to my mind, it is very much about increasing predictability and enhancing the possibility of a solution through partnership,” Luca Anceschi, Professor of Eurasian Studies at the University of Glasgow, told Kazinform.
At the same time, he believes that with the upcoming UK general elections this year, the next government – likely to be formed by the Labour Party – may have different foreign policy priorities from the current Conservative government. This new government would be responsible for drafting such a document.
“That's certainly a possibility that the new government will have a very different foreign policy from the one that we currently have,” says Professor Anceschi. “I expect a change in foreign policy. I expect a different attitude towards visas and migration. I expect a different attitude towards climate change and clean energy.”
Asset recovery cooperation
The aforementioned House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee report, “Countries at crossroads: UK engagement in Central Asia”, contains 28 recommendations to the UK government, among which assistance to tackle corruption and money laundering holds a prominent position.
“We recommend that the Government encourages the National Crime Agency to send agents to liaise with Central Asian governments in developing cooperation on Unexplained Wealth Orders and on bringing back stolen public assets from the UK,” the House of Commons document reads.
According to the National Crime Agency, the most effective means of improving the response in this area is to build and enhance secure police-to-police intelligence-sharing routes, underpinned by international MoUs ensuring the security and appropriate use of intelligence shared through these routes.
“The NCA engages with law enforcement counterparts in Kazakhstan, including as part of our work to disrupt corrupt elites and their enablers,” an NCA spokesperson said in response to a request from the Kazinform International Agency.
“If NCA activity results in the recovery of assets that have been taken illegally from overseas jurisdictions, we will work with partners in the UK and abroad to implement their return in line with agreed processes and legislation,” the agency added.
“The development of international legal cooperation is one of the key areas in the work on asset recovery and includes the exchange of information and interaction with the necessary international organizations. In particular, the exchange of information is carried out through the networks CARIN, ARIN-AP, as well as through secure channels of Interpol and GlobE Network,” the Committee for Asset Recovery of the General Prosecutor's Office of Kazakhstan told Kazinform International Agency.
As the General Prosecutor's Office explained, the work is currently being carried out in accordance with the requirements of the law On the return of illegally acquired assets to the state, under which a number of persons have already been included in the register. Information regarding the legality of their acquisition of foreign assets and their affiliates is being verified.
It is worth noting that the forthcoming visit of David Cameron, a seasoned figure in British politics and well-acquainted with Kazakhstan, is poised to inject fresh momentum into the deepening multifaceted cooperation between Astana and London. Indeed, the esteemed stature of this British political heavyweight is expected to catalyze collaborative endeavors not only within the region but also on the global stage.
