EU hones in on Central Asia in race for raw materials

The European Union’s first-ever summit with the five resource-rich states of Central Asia, will focus on critical minerals needed for a growing defense industry and the bloc’s green transformation.

The EU is taking a keen interest in Central Asia which comprises Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, as realization seeped in that Europe was far too dependent on China for critical minerals.

As EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa meet Central Asian leaders in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, sustainable development and Russia’s attempts to evade sanctions, among other issues, will be on the table. 

But most attention will be paid to infrastructure development required to tap into the region’s valuable resources. 

Central Asia: Key for critical minerals supply chains

“Critical Raw Minerals (CRMs) are indispensable for a broad range of strategic sectors, including the net zero industry, the digital industry, aerospace, and defense sectors,” according to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office. 

China controls some 60% of global production and over 85% of the processing of critical minerals. In 2023, 94% of EU imports of rare earth elements came from China, Malaysia, and Russia combined. 

However, China is a key Russian ally and is building its own green tech industry, for which it requires the same minerals. As a result, it has in the past restricted the export of at least one critical mineral, which has led to concerns in the EU about the possibility of disruption to its supply chains. 

Recently, China restricted the export of antimony, a mineral used in night vision goggles, precision optics, and various military applications. 

Central Asia, experts say, is an alternative source for most of what Europe requires.

“A lot of critical raw materials the EU needs are in Central Asia,” Samuel Vesterbye, the director of the think tank European Neighborhood Council, told DW. 

“For instance, silicon is necessary for solar panels, certain types of tungsten are needed for radars and other defense equipment, and most famous is lithium that is needed for batteries.”  

Central Asian nations are rich in all three, and many more, but the bulk of these resources is trapped in an undeveloped mining sector. 

The European Institute for Asian Studies (EIAS) noted that the potential for production expansion is significant. “Kazakhstan currently produces 19 of the EU’s 34 critical raw materials and is poised to expand to 21. Uzbekistan ranks as the world’s fifth-largest uranium supplier and is also rich in silver, titanium, molybdenum, and gold,” it found. 

Experts say the EU’s efforts are aimed at infrastructure development to help Central Asia extract these minerals in a sustainable way and, in turn, help the EU diversify its supplies.

“The EU offers something different than China and the US, and that’s joint ventures with Central Asian companies,” Vesterbye said, “That means more investments, industrialization, and growth for local businesses. That’s music to the ears of Central Asian leaders.”

The EU is investing billions in Central Asia 

The region is a big part of the EU’s €300-billion ($324-billion) Global Gateway Project that is billed as a rival to China’s Belt and Road Initiative and focuses on developing the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR). This corridor will improve connectivity between the EU and Central Asia and cut travel time to 15 days. 

According to estimates, Central Asian governments need €18.5 billion to develop the required infrastructure. In January last year, the EU raised more than half of that at an investors forum with money from member states, the private sector as well as the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. 

Marie Dumoulin, Director of the Europe Program at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), told DW via email that one of the core elements of the EU’s approach to Central Asia is to develop connectivity to and through this region.

However, to lure Central Asia from other suitors, such as Russia and China, the EU needs to be proactive and visible.

“Central Asian countries should benefit from the Global Gateway initiative but concrete projects are slow to materialize and not very visible. The EU needs to fix it if it wants to be a competitive player in the region,” she said.

The TITR is touted as the shortest route from China to Europe and as an alternative to both the Suez Canal and Russia. Vesterbye, the European Neighborhood Council expert, thinks that the modernization of infrastructure along the route would substantially multiply trade. 

“Currently a little under 100,000 containers arrive in the EU from Central Asian states, but once the corridor is ready and modernized, the EU can get more than 800,000,” he said. 

The EU, he added, would use the summit to focus on “an increase in business-to-business contracts” and on the procurement of more critical minerals. “I think the EU would probably want to see more infrastructure, more bridges, more harbors, more mining.” 

Infrastructure development to challenge Russia’s sanctions evasion? 

During a visit to Turkmenistan’s capital, Ashgabat, last week, the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, raised the issue of how Russia was  using Central Asian nations to avoid sanctions. 

“Russian companies must not use Central Asia to bypass these restrictions,” she said. 

Some experts suggest that to counter Russian influence in the former Soviet states, the EU needs to use a carrot-and-stick approach and that a development partnership could have various advantages. 

“Supporting infrastructure development can be a way of demonstrating European commitment to building up long-term trade relationships that foster cooperation in other areas, such as sanctions implementation,” according to a recent analysis by The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a UK think tank.