Macron Calls To Strengthen Partnerships In Central Asia Visit

French President Emmanuel Macron said he wanted to "accelerate cooperation" with Kazakhstan on Wednesday, as part of a visit to boost France's footprint in Central Asia

Astana, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Nov, 2023) French President Emmanuel Macron said he wanted to "accelerate cooperation" with Kazakhstan on Wednesday, as part of a visit to boost France's footprint in Central Asia.

The French leader is on a two-day visit to the resource-rich region, where Russia, China, Turkey and Europe are all jostling for influence.

Macron said the purpose of his trip was to "strengthen ... complement and accelerate" France's partnership with Kazakhstan during a press conference in the capital Astana.

Central Asia, which has long been under Russian influence and was part of the Soviet Union, is receiving increasing attention from other powers as Moscow is taken up with its war in Ukraine.

Macron acknowledged the "geopolitical pressures" being put on Kazakhstan, which borders Russia to its north and China to its east.

"I do not underestimate the geopolitical difficulties, the pressures, sometimes the jostling to which you may be subjected," Macron told Kazakhstan's president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

"In a world where great powers want to become hegemonies and where regional powers are becoming unpredictable," the French president said he welcomed Kazakhstan's "refusal ... to take the route of becoming a vassal."

Tokayev in turn said France was his country's "key and reliable partner in the EU" and that he wanted to give their partnership "extra impetus".