Blinken-Nurtleu: Simple Meanings of Complex Formulations
On March 26, 2024, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Murat Nurtleu held negotiations with the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington. The two chief diplomats discussed a wide range of processes in bilateral relations and exchanged views on the partnership between both countries in a number of sectors and areas.
Washington’s special attention to Kazakhstan is no longer a novelty – Kazakhstan is the only country in Central Asia with the status of an extended strategic partner of the United States. Bilateral trade turnover at the end of 2023 also turned out to be very solid for such geographically distant countries, breaking the mark of 4 billion dollars.
However, despite the diversity of bilateral trade and investment partnerships, Kazakhstan’s natural resources – especially uranium and rare earth metals – are what the US is most interested in. This thesis was again confirmed by the experience of the Nurtleu and Blinken negotiations. The Central Asian republic’s impressive uranium reserves make it the largest exporter of this energy-significant resource, while interest in rare earth metals is justified by the US desire to find substantial suppliers in the face of China’s market dominance in order to reduce the threat from possible restrictions that Beijing may impose for political reasons. As of 2024, the US will acquire more than 90% of all rare earth metals used in the national industry from abroad. Of course, this arrangement is in........
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