Geopolitics and its impact on the present and future of mining in Kazakhstan

Benjamin Godwin – Director of Analysis, PRISM Political Risk Management

In his presentation, Benjamin focused on giving a high-level picture of what has been emerging in the Central Asia region over the past year.

Usually, PRISM Political Risk Management consult their clients on regulatory risks, political risks, and economic challenges of the countries that they work in and that their clients work in.

However, this year was off to a tough start with unrest in Kazakhstan, violence in Nagorno Karabakh, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan border clashes. But of course, it’s Russia’s war in Ukraine that’s dominating the agenda and is likely to dominate the agenda for a while to come.

Kazakhstan is best at demonstrating the stresses and strains that the war in Ukraine has brought to the region. “The government of Kazakhstan has made a serious commitment to respect the contours of the Western sanctions regime, so that minimises, or at least as much as possible, minimises the risk that Kazakhstan will be subject to direct sanctions by Western countries.” – Says Benjamin.

And although Kazakhstan has officially declared neutrality on the war in Ukraine, it is engaged in a bit of a strategic realignment. It has been quietly working its relations with Western powers, particularly the United States and the European Union, as well as China and other countries. 

During the presentation, Benjamin goes into more detail about Kazakhstan’s external relationships and how they are affected by this year’s geopolitical agenda.

To close up, Benjamin has highlighted that despite all of the above, Kazakhstan and Central Asia regions remain attractive and have a lot of potential in them.