British Prime Minister David Cameron signed a strategic cooperation
agreement as well as $1.0 billion in deals with Kazakhstan on Monday
during his first visit to the energy-rich ex-Soviet state.
Cameron and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev also
unveiled an oil and gas processing plant on the shores of the Caspian
Sea that is meant to provide a new reliable source of energy for
European countries.
The British premier played up the importance of Kazakhstan to
regional security as he wound down a swing through the region that
included visits to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
"We're in a global race for jobs and investment," Cameron said
on Monday. "This is one of the most rapidly emerging countries in the
world."
Western nations have attempted through the two decades since
the Soviet Union's collapse to make gains in a Central Asian region that
relies on Russia for its European energy export routes.
Cameron added that the two countries had signed a "strategic
partnership agreement" that underscored the importance of their growing
ties.
Plans to construct a European- and U.S.-backed natural gas pipeline
called Nabucco have already fallen through and Western powers are now
seeking to hammer out a new strategy to establish closer contacts with
nations such as Kazakhstan.
Britain for one has decided to focus on bilateral relations
with specific Central Asian countries. Cameron became the first British
prime minister to visit the nation--a landmark event highlighted by
Nazarbayev.
Officials said the deals besides energy also covered infrastructure projects as well as those in the IT field.
"Our country is interested in having close relations with Britain," Nazarbayev said at a joint press appearance with Cameron.
"I am confident that the documents that we have prepared, as
well as our negotiations, will give a new impulse to economic and
political cooperation between our countries."
Kazakhstan is seen as one of the more neutral Central Asian
countries that enjoys equally good relations with Russia and China as
well as the West--despite periodic criticism by Washington and Brussels
of its human rights record.
Nazarbayev has also hired former British prime minister Tony
Blair as the nation's image consultant who has been tasked with
improving Kazakhstan's attraction to investors.
Cameron led a large business delegation to the Central Asian nation that included top managers from Royal Dutch Shell.
The British premier and Nazarbayev jointly unveiled the
Bolashak on-shore oil and gas processing facility that operates with
involvement from the Anglo-Dutch giant.
The plant is stationed on the Kashagan oil and gas field--one of the largest deposits found in Central Asia.
It is due to process 450,000 barrels of oil and 8.8 million
cubic metres of gas daily by the time it becomes fully operational.