First EU-Central Asia Summit in Uzbekistan: Cooperation on critical minerals, energy, and logistics set to grow.
Critical raw materials, energy, transportation routes, and digitalization—these are the key sectors the European Union plans to support in Central Asia with €12 billion in funding. The announcement was made at the first EU-Central Asia summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, where representatives from both sides pledged to strengthen their strategic partnership. The funds will come from the EU’s geopolitical investment program, Global Gateway.
Amid growing geopolitical tensions, the EU is focused on diversifying its raw material sources and reducing dependency on specific suppliers. The landlocked countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan are viewed as potential alternatives to China, with vast, often untapped reserves of critical resources like rare earth elements. Just this week, Kazakhstan reported the discovery of its largest rare earth deposit, estimated at 20 million tons. The EU has ramped up cooperation with countries like Kazakhstan in the past already, pledging further investment.
Raw Material Partnerships: Europe Aims to Distance Itself from China
China and Russia still wield significant economic and political influence in the region. Chinese companies, for example, hold the majority of mining licenses and operations in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, while most mineral exports from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan currently go to China, according to Euractiv.
However, Europe’s approach is distinct, as EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen emphasized in her speech at the summit. Europe’s goal is not just to extract raw materials for its own use but to create added value across the entire local supply chain—from mining and refining to research and training. Von der Leyen also announced a joint declaration on critical raw materials designed to attract large private investments to the region, as well as an investor forum planned for later this year in Uzbekistan.
How successful these efforts will be remains to be seen. Alongside traditional ties to Russia and China, other countries such as the United States are increasingly interested in Central Asia’s raw materials. Some analysts criticize the EU’s relatively slow pace, noting that the Union has been involved in very few projects in the region, despite decades of cooperation with these governments, as Roman Vakulchuk of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs told Euractiv.
Photo: omersukrugoksu via Canva