Asia Monday Events, December 7, 2020

79th Anniversary of Japan's Attack on Pearl Harbor

THE PLASTIC FIRST MILE--CLOSING THE LOOP ON PLASTIC WASTE IN ASIA. 12/7, 8:00–9:15am (EST), WEBINAR. Sponsor: Asia Program, Wilson. Speakers: Marcy Trent Long, Founder, Sustainable Asia; Sherry Lu, Program Officer, Plastic Free China; Tiza Mafira, Co-founder & Executive Director, Indonesia Plastic Bag Diet Movement (Gerakan Indonesia Diet Kantong Plastik); Hiroaki Odachi, Plastic Campaigner, Greenpeace Japan. Moderator: Jennifer L. Turner, Director, China Environment Forum & Manager, Global Choke Point Initiative. 

THE U.S.-JAPAN ALLIANCE IN 2020: AN EQUAL ALLIANCE WITH A GLOBAL AGENDA. 7/7, 8:00-9:30am (EST), ZOOM. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: Richard L. Armitage, Armitage International; Counselor, CSIS; Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University; Trustee, CSIS; Michael J. Green, Senior Vice President for Asia and Japan Chair, CSIS; Kara L. Bue, Founding Partner, Armitage International; Victor Cha, Senior Adviser and Korea Chair, CSIS; Zack Cooper, AEI; Matthew P. Goodman, Senior Vice President for Economics and Simon Chair in Political Economy, CSIS; Robert A. Manning, Resident Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council; Sheila A. Smith, Senior Fellow for Japan Studies, Council on Foreign Relations. 

INSTRUMENTS OF INFLUENCE? CHINESE FINANCING IN SOUTH ASIA. 12/7, 8:30-10:00am (EST), ZOOM. Sponsor: Stimson. Speakers: Atif Ahmad, Researcher; Avasna Pandey, Program Manager, Centre for Investigative Journalism-Nepal; Nilanthi Samaranayake, Strategy and Policy Analysis Director, Center for New American Security; Akriti Vasudeva, Editor-at-Large, South Asian Voices; Uzair Younus, Engagement and Strategy Manager, Dhamiri.

THE POLITICS OF REFORM IN KAZAKHSTAN. 12/7, 9:30-10:30am (EST) ONLINE. Sponsor: Carnegie. Speakers: Randi Levinas, Executive Vice Vyacheslav Abramov, Kazakhstani journalist, editor, and the founder of Vlast.kz, an independent, analytical online magazine covering politics, economy, and social issues; Almas Chukin is managing partner of Visor Kazakhstan, one of the largest private equity investment companies in Central Asia; Meruert Makhmutova is the director and founder of the Public Policy Research Center (PPRC) and co-founder of the Association of Economists of Kazakhstan; Nargis Kassenova is a senior fellow at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University. She holds a PhD in International Cooperation Studies from Nagoya University (Japan); Paul Stronski is a senior fellow in Carnegie’s Russia and Eurasia Program, where his research focuses on the relationship between Russia and neighboring countries in Central Asia and the South Caucasus. 

DOES CHINESE FOREIGN BEHAVIOR WARRANT SUSTAINED US COUNTERMEASURES? 12/7, 10:30-11:30am (EST), WEBINAR. Sponsor: Sigur Center for Asian Studies, George Washington University. Speaker: author Robert G. Sutter, Professor of Practice of International Affairs at Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University. Release of Chinese Foreign Relations: Power and Policy of an Emerging Global Force, 5th edition. PURCHASE BOOK 

HOW TO RESPOND TO CHINA’S CARROTS AND STICKS?: PROSPECTS OF A TRANSATLANTIC RESPONSE TO CHINESE ECONOMIC COERCION. 12/7, 10:00-11:00am (EST) ZOOM WEBINAR. Sponsor: American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS). Speakers: Maximilian Ernst, DAAD/AICGS Research Fellow; PhD Candidate in Political Science at the Institute for European Studies of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).

RETHINKING RELIGION AND U.S. DIPLOMACY 12/7, 2:00-3:00pm (EST), ZOOM WEBINAR. Sponsor: Georgetown University Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and its Global Human Development Program. Speakers: Shaun Casey, director, Berkley Center; Jessica Goudeau, author of After the Last Border: Two Families and the Story of Refuge in America (2020); Emily Crane Linn (G'22) previously served as executive director of a refugee resettlement agency, Canopy of Northwest Arkansas based in Fayetteville, Arkansas; Katherine Marshall, senior fellow, Berkley Center.

RETHINKING ISOLATIONISM. 12/7, 4:00-6:00pm (EST), WEBINAR. Sponsor: Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS). Speakers: author Charles Kupchan, Professor, Georgetown University, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations; Stefano Guzzini, Professor, Uppsala University, Senior Researcher, DIIS; Rasmus Sinding Søndergaard, Senior Researcher, DIIS; Vibeke Schou Tjalve, Senior Researcher, DIIS. PURCHASE BOOK

U.S.-ROK COOPERATION BETWEEN THE INDO-PACIFIC STRATEGY AND THE NEW SOUTH POLICY. 12/7, 10:00-11:00am (EST), WEBINAR. Sponsor: Institute for Korean Studies, George Washington University. Speaker: Marc Knapper, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Korea and Japan. Moderator: Jisoo M. Kim, Korea Foundation Associate Professor of History, International Affairs, East Asian Languages and Literatures, Director of Institute for Korean Studies at GW, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Korean Studies.

THE ROLE OF AI AND BIG DATA IN MILITARY OPERATIONS: A DISCUSSION WITH GENERAL RICHARD D. CLARKE AND Dr. RICHARD SHULTZ. 12/7, Noon (EST), WEBINAR. Sponsor: Hudson. Speakers: Gen. Richard D. Clarke, Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command; Bryan Clark, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Defense Concepts and Technology, Hudson Institute; Dr. Richard H. Shultz, Jr., Lee E. Dirks Professor of International Politics, Director of the International Security Studies Program, Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy; Dr. Nadia Schadlow, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute. 

THE PRIMACY OF SANCTIONS: AN ASSESSMENT OF U.S. SANCTIONS ON RUSSIA. 12/7, 1:00-2:30pm (EST), WEBCAST. Sponsor: Kennan Institute, Wilson Center. Speakers: Thomas Pickering, Vice Chairman of Hills and Company, Former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and former U.S. Ambassador to Russia and the UN; Daniel Ahn, Global Fellow, Managing Director, Chief U.S. Economist, Head of Macroeconomic Strategy, BNP Paribas; Randi Levinas, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, U.S.-Russia Business Council; MODERATOR: William E. Pomeranz, Deputy Director, Kennan Institute. 

Monday in Washington, November 17, 2014

THE ECONOMIC AND SECURITY FUTURE. 11/17, 8:30am-1:30pm, Breakfast. Sponsor: Economists for Peace and Security. Speakers: Richard Kaufman, Bethesda Research Institute; Carl Conetta, Project on Defense Alternatives; Damon Silvers, Policy Director, AFL-CIO; James K. Galbraith, Economists for Peace and Security; Bill Spriggs, AFL-CIO; Marshall Auerback, Institute for New Economic Thinking; Rachel Cleetus, Union of Concerned Scientists; and more.

HISTORY, POLITICS, AND POLICY: U.S.-KOREA. 11/17, 9:00am-6:00pm. Sponsor: Center for East Asia Policy Studies, Brookings Institution. Speakers: Robert Gallucci, Georgetown University, President of MacArthur Foundation (2009-2014), Dean, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University (1996-2009); Han Sung-joo, Professor Emeritus, Korea University, Foreign Minister, Republic of Korea (1993-1994), UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Cyprus (1996-1997); and more. 

2014 OPEN DOORS REPORT. 11/17, 9:30-10:30am. Sponsor: Institute of International Education (IIE). Speakers: Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Evan Ryan; Allan Goodman, IIE president and CEO.

AID FOR E-TRADE: ACCELERATING THE GLOBAL E-COMMERCE REVOLUTION. 11/17, 10:00-11:30am. Sponsor: Europe Program, CSIS. Speakers: Dr. Kati Suominen, Adjunct Fellow, Europe Program, CSIS; Dr. Joshua Meltzer, Fellow, Global Economy and Development, Brookings Institution; Mr. Fabrizio Opertti, Chief, Integration and Trade Sector, Inter-American Development Bank; Ms. Jennifer Sanford, Senior Manager, International Trade & Energy Policy, Cisco Systems.

THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF URBANIZATION. 11/17, 10:00-11:30am. Sponsor: Project on Prosperity and Development, CSIS. Speakers: Hazem Galal, Cities and Local Government Sector Leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers; Scott McGuigan, Global Project Development Director, CH2M Hill; Charles North, Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator, Bureau of Economic Growth, Education, and Environment, U.S. Agency for International Development; R. Mukami Kariuki, Sector Manager, Urban Development and Services Practice, World Bank Group; and Robin King, Director of Urban Development and Accessibility, World Resources Institute; Moderator: Daniel F. Runde, Director, Project on Prosperity and Development, and William A. Schreyer Chair in Global Analysis, Center for Strategic International Studies.

U.S.-KOREA RELATIONS IN PUBLIC DIPLOMACY. 11/17, 10:30am-5:00pm. Sponsor: Asia Program, Wilson Center (WWC). Speakers: Kisuk Cho, Director, Public Diplomacy Center, Ewha Womans University; Eugene Bae, Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Craig Hayden, Assistant Professor, American University; Marvin Ott, Senior Scholar, Wilson Center; Hochang Shing, Professor, Sogang University; James Person, Deputy Director, Wilson Center; Chris Nelson, Samuels Associates International; Dong Min Lee, Yonhap News Agency; Myung-bok Bae, Joongang Daily; Paul Eckert, Asian Affairs Journalist.

PUTIN AT VALDAI: RUSSIA'S BREAK WITH THE WORLD ORDER? 11/17, 11:00am-12:30pm. Sponsor: Center on Global Interests (CGI). Speakers: Clifford Gaddy, senior fellow at the Brookings Foreign Policy Program's Center on the United States and Europe, and co-founder and senior scientific adviser of the Russian-American Center for Research on International Financial and Energy Security, based at Penn State University; Ariel Cohen, senior research fellow in Russian and Eurasian studies and international energy policy in the Heritage Foundation's Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign and National Security.

MULTILEVEL GOVERNANCE AS A FRAMEWORK FOR REGIONALIZATION AND THE QUESTION OF TIBET: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS AND NEW PROSPECTS FOR CHINA'S TIBET POLICY. 11/17, Noon-1:00pm. Sponsor: GWU Elliott School. Speaker: Tashi Rabgey, research professor in international affairs at GWU.

THE MORAL CASE FOR FOSSIL FUELS. 11/17, Noon-1:00pm. Sponsor: Heritage. Speaker: Alex Epstein, Author, founder of the Center for Industrial Progress.

THE NEW CONGRESS AND U.S. ENERGY POLICY. 11/17, Noon-1:30pm. Sponsor: Marshall Institute. Speakers: Scott H. Segal, Partner, Bracewell & Giuliani; Mark Mills, CEO, Digital Power Group; Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute; and member of the Board of Directors of the George C. Marshall Institute; William O’Keefe, President, Solutions Consulting, Inc. and CEO of the George C. Marshall Institute.

FINANCIAL STABILITY: FRAUD, CONFIDENCE, AND THE WEALTH OF NATIONS. 11/17, Noon-2:00pm. Sponsor: Cato. Speakers: co-author, R. Christopher Whalen, Senior Managing Director and Head of Research, Kroll Bond Rating Agency; with comments by Paul Miller, Managing Director, FBR Capital Markets.

NATIONAL PRESS CLUB LUNCHEON WITH ALLISON MACFARLANE. 11/17, 12:30-2:00pm. Sponsor: National Press Club (NPC). Speaker: Allison Macfarlane, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

PROJECT SAPPHIRE 20 YEARS LATER: COOPERATIVE THREAT REDUCTION AND LESSONS FOR THE FUTURE. 11/17, 5:30 -7:30 pm. Sponsors: Embassy of Kazakhstan in cooperation with the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program and the National Security Archive of the George Washington University. Speakers: Andrew Kuchins, Director and Senior Fellow, Russia and Eurasia Program, CSIS; Kairat Umarov, Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the United States; Richard Hoagland, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, U.S. Department of State; Andrew Weber, Deputy Head, Ebola Coordination Unit, U.S. Department of State; Member of the 1994 top-secret "Tiger Team"; Laura Holgate, Senior Director, WMD Terrorism and Threat Reduction at the National Security Council; David Hoffman, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy; Tom Blanton, Director, National Security Archive at the George Washington University.

Monday in Washington, September 8,2014

KOREA, TURKEY, AND EURASIAN CONTINENTALISM. 9/8, 9:00am-4:00pm. Sponsor: Reischauer Center, SAIS. Speakers: TBA.

DEATH, HEALTH, POVERTY AND TOBACCO TAXES. 9/8, 10:00-11:30am. Sponsor: Center for Global Development. Speakers: Prabhat Jha, Centre for Global Health Research, St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto; Bill Savedoff, Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development.

WOMEN AND FOREIGN WORKERS: NEW STAKEHOLDERS OF ABENOMICS? 9/8, 10:00-11:30am. Sponsor: US-Japan Research Institute. Speakers: Keiji Nakatsuji, Operating Advisor , USJI / Professor, Ritsumeikan University; Junya Tsutsui, Professor, Ritsumeikan University; Apichai W. Shipper, Adjunct Associate Professor, Asia Studies Program, School of Foreign Services, Georgetown University; Linda Hasunuma, Assistant Professor, Franklin and Marshall College.

AFTER THE SUMMIT: GENERAL PHILIP M. BREEDLOVE ON NATO'S PATH FORWARD. 9/15, 11:00am-Noon. Sponsor: Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, Atlantic Council. Speaker: General Philip M. Breedlove, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe and Commander, US European Command; Frederick Kempe, President and CEO, Atlantic Council.

WHY KOREA WAS DIFFERENT: LESSONS LEARNED FROM FOREIGN AID DURING KOREA'S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. 9/8, Noon-1:30pm. Sponsor: Korea Economic Institute of America. Speakers: Lee Kye Woo, Korea Development Institution School of Public Policy and Management.

CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND OTHER DANGEROUS IDEAS. 9/8, Noon-1:00pm. Sponsor: The National Archives. Speaker: Author Cass Sunstein, Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School.

HOW MUCH IS THE INTERNET WORTH TO THE U.S. ECONOMY? 9/8, Noon-1:30 pm. Sponsor: Hudson Institute. Speakers: Harold Furchtgott-Roth, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for the Economics of the Internet, Hudson Institute; Jeffrey Li, Research Assistant, Center for the Economics of the Internet, Hudson Institute. 

THE CHALLENGES OF JAPAN-US RELATION IN EAST ASIAN COMMUNITY: TOWARD NORTHEAST AND SOUTHEAST ASIA. 9/8, 3:00-4:30pm. Sponsor: US-Japan Research Institute. Speakers: Toru Oga, Associate Professor, Kyushu University; Yoichiro Sato, Professor, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University.

US POLICY ON ASIA: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? 9/8, 5:00-6:30pm. Sponsor: Sigur Center for Asian Studies, George Washington University and Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies. Speakers: Dr. Kurt Campbell, Chairman and CEO of The Asia Group, Chairman of CNAS and a Director for Standard Chartered Bank.

FRAGILE BY DESIGN: THE POLITICAL ORIGINS OF BANKING CRISES AND SCARCE CREDIT. 9/8, 5:00-6:30pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: Cato. Speakers: author Charles Calomiris, Henry Kaufman Professor of Financial Institutions, Columbia Business School; with comments by Andrew Olmem, Partner, Venable LLP; moderated by Mark Calabria, Director, Financial Regulation Studies, Cato Institute. Location: Cato, 1000 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Contact:

LOOKING FORWARD: KAZAKHSTAN AND THE UNITED STATES . 9/8, 5:00-7:00pm. Sponsor: SAIS, Johns Hopkins Central Asia-Caucasus Institute (CACI). Speakers: Fatima Kukeyeva, professor at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University; Askar Nursha, fellow at the Institute of World Economy and Politics; S. Enders Wimbush, principal at StrateVarious LLC; Svante Cornell, director of CACI; and S. Frederick Starr, chairman of CACI. 

THE TURBULENT MIDDLE EAST: A DIALOGUE WITH AMB. DENNIS ROSS AND FORMER DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR ELLIOTT ABRAMS. 9/8, 7:00-10:00pm. Speakers: Ambassador Dennis Ross is Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University and is the William Davidson Distinguished Fellow, Counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy; Elliott Abrams is an Adjunct for the Program for Jewish Civilization and is Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations; moderator Ambassador Robert Gallucci, Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy and former Dean of the SFS.

New South Korean Leader Affirms Strategic Partnership with Kazakhstan

Writes APP member, Richard Weitz of the Hudson Institute, in the Jamestown Foundation's Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 10 Issue: 49, March 15, 2013 

Although the threat of war on the Korean Peninsula has been drawing most international attention, from the perspective of Central Asia, another interesting question is whether the new South Korean government will pursue as vigorous a Central Asian strategy as its predecessor. Under President Lee Myung-bak (2008–2013), the Republic of Korea (ROK) engaged in a “Global Korea” campaign and a “New Asia Initiative” that both encompassed Central Asia. President Lee himself had visited Kazakhstan seven times in the space of four years.

At the end of February 2013, Bakytzhan Sagintayev, Kazakhstan’s first deputy prime minister and minister of regional development, travelled to Seoul to attend the inauguration ceremony of the new South Korean President Park Geun-Hye as the head of a Kazakhstani delegation and as a special envoy of President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The Kazakhstani and South Korean governments affirmed their commitment to develop their “strategic partnership,” which they established in May 2009 (Tengrinews, February 27).

Sagintayev had visited Seoul in 2003 for an intergovernmental meeting and in 2012 for the Yeosu Expo 2012, whose theme was “the living ocean and coast.” South Korea supported Kazakhstan’s winning bid to host the World Expo in 2017, under the theme of “future energy.” In his late February–early March 2013 visit, Sagintayev reaffirmed Kazakhstan’s interest in obtaining access to South Korean investment and technologies. He told the media that, “Resources-wise we are a very wealthy country now, but we need to do more to implement further restructuring, and we need advanced technologies to reach our goal” (The Korea Herald, March 3).

The Republic of Kazakhstan and the Republic of Korea established diplomatic relations on January 28, 1992. After a slow start, their bilateral ties have expanded greatly in recent years, especially in the economic and energy sectors. Senior leaders from both countries, including their presidents, now regularly visit each other. The year of 2012 was a banner time in their diplomatic relations. In addition to celebrating two decades of bilateral ties, Presidents Lee and Nazarbayev held two high-level meetings—once during the March Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul and again when Lee visited Kazakhstan in September.

Scholars have noted important similarities between the ROK and Central Asian countries such as Kazakhstan. They are surrounded by more powerful countries, many of which now have nuclear weapons. Lying at the crossroads of powerful empires, Central Asia and Korea have often been valued for their strategic rather than intrinsic worth—as terrain and clients for use against rival empires. They look to extra-regional partners to weaken the dominance of the nearby great powers. Globalization has now made it possible for Koreans and Central Asians to develop close economic and other ties with each other.

Despite their physical remoteness from each other, Kazakhstan has historical ties with Korea. During Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s tyranny, all 172,000 ethnic Koreans were forcibly removed from the Russian Far East and deported to unpopulated territory in modern Kazakhstan. Since their arrival in October 1937, these Koryo Saram have become well integrated into Kazakhstan’s diverse ethnic mix. Today, some 100,000 ethnic Koreans live in Kazakhstan, with several holding prominent public and private sector positions (The Korea Herald, March 3). “Kazakhstan is the only country in the post-Soviet space and possibly in the whole world to have on its soil a Korean national musical and drama theater,” President Nazarbayev had remarked in summer of 2011. “This is the symbol of our friendship, our brotherhood and a bridge between the two nations” (CACI Analyst, August 31, 2011).

Recent years have seen efforts to build on these historical ties and promote cultural exchanges between Koreans and Kazakhs. The two governments designated 2010 the “Year of Kazakhstan” in South Korea, while 2011 was the “Year of Korea” in Kazakhstan. Under the Lee administration, some South Koreans offered their own country as a possible developmental role model of a state that had developed a powerful economy and transitioned from an authoritarian to a democratic political system (http://www.keia.org/publication/new-horizon-south-korea-central-asia-relations-rok-joins-great-game).

Kazakhstan and South Korea are cooperating on various regional security issues. In June 2006, South Korea became a full member of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), a Kazakhstan-initiated project begun in 1992 that seeks to enhance security throughout Asia. The two countries are leading global efforts to prevent nuclear nonproliferation and enhance the safety and security of dangerous nuclear materials. For example, President Nazarbayev attended the March 2012 Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul and made major commitments to prevent the diversion of its expanding nuclear materials and technologies for illegal uses. In an interview later that year, President Lee praised Kazakhstan’s contributions to nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament: “Kazakhstan is an active participant in the discussions on reduction of nuclear weapons and non-proliferation. The country deserves to be respected for playing a leading role in [advancing] nuclear security in the region. Right after gaining sovereignty, Kazakhstan announced it had banned nuclear weapons and tests on its territory. Kazakhstan shut down the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site and took up the initiative of creating a nuclear free zone in Central Asia. I was deeply impressed with Kazakhstan’s efforts” (KazInform, September 12, 2012)

The Kazakhstani and ROK governments are now cooperating bilaterally, as well as with other partners, to counter North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons. Kazakhstan and the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea (DPRK) do not have embassies in each other’s countries, their economic exchanges are miniscule, and only Kazakhstan’s ethnic Koreans have any cultural interactions with North Korea. Kazakhstani and ROK officials have jointly denounced North Korea’s tests of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles and urged the DPRK to rejoin the Six-Party Talks seeking to eliminate all nuclear weapons in North Korea in return for security, economic and other benefits. For example, on February 12, Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov urged Pyongyang to “abandon any steps [that] might lead to the escalation of tensions” and complained that the DPRK’s nuclear weapons program “affects the non-proliferation process and bears security risks on a regional and global scale (Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, February 25).

Bilateral defense ties have also been growing. In October 2010, the Kazakhstani and South Korean defense ministries signed a memorandum of understanding on military cooperation. South Korea is helping to develop Kazakhstan’s naval forces and train Kazakhstani military officers in its military academies (Kazakhstan General Newswire October 4, 2010). One even might see arms trade develop in future years since both countries are trying to raise their defense exports. Thanks to Astana and Seoul’s overlapping interests and complementary foreign and economic policies, ties between the two Asian countries have been growing. And this cooperation is likely to increase further the more Kazakhstan develops and modernizes.

South Korea and Kazakhstan Consolidate Bilateral Cooperation

Reprinted from the Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 9 Issue: 177

September 28, 2012 

By: Georgiy Voloshin

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak visits Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev (Source: Business News Kazakhstan)

On September 13, the South Korean President Lee Myung-bak paid an official visit to Kazakhstan. It was his seventh visit to this Central Asian republic during the last four years. The last time South Korea’s leader met with his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev was in August 2011, when the presidents signed 12 intergovernmental agreements covering various spheres of cooperation. South Korea and Kazakhstan established strategic relations back in May 2009, and the volume of Seoul’s direct investment into the Kazakh economy has been increasing ever since.

The bilateral trade turnover exceeded the symbolic level of $1 billion last year, while the first six months of 2012 were marked by almost $600 million worth of commercial deals. At the same time, the Republic of Korea has directly invested over $3 billion into multiple projects on Kazakh territory, and the size of its investment portfolio is expected to grow up to $8 billion with the implementation of more joint projects (Tengrinews, September 13).

One of the key achievements of this year’s bilateral meeting between the two presidents was the official launch of construction works on the site of a future thermal power plant on Lake Balkhash in South-Eastern Kazakhstan. This project is being implemented by Kazakhstan’s state-owned electric power supplier Samruk-Energo (this holding company is currently comprised of 22 independent entities) and a consortium of two South Korean companies, the Korea Electric Power Corporation and the Samsung C&T Corporation. While the total cost of the project is estimated at around $2.3 billion, the first block of the Balkhash thermal power plant will become operational only in December 2017 (Kazinform, September 13). According to President Nazarbayev, the successful completion of this large-scale project will enable Kazakhstan to curb its electric power dependency, which is especially acute during cold winter months. While the construction phase will require the mobilization of 900 workers, the maintenance of the power plant, which is expected to be entirely granted to South Korean partners, will secure permanent jobs to more than 3,500 people (Kazinform, September 13).

Another important breakthrough for Seoul was its agreement with Astana about the official exploration launch date on the Zhambyl oilfield in the northern section of the Caspian Sea. Presently, Kazakhstan’s national oil and gas company KazMunaiGaz (KMG) and a group of preselected South Korean energy companies are planning to start exploratory operations next year (Oilcapital.ru, September 13). In September 2004, the first protocol was signed between KazMunaiGaz and its South Korean partners, identifying Zhambyl as a site of potential collaboration. After the Kazakh Ministry of Energy and KMG finalized talks about the scope of projected operations in February 2008, an additional agreement was signed in order to delineate each party’s responsibilities. Moreover, South Korea has vowed to accelerate preparatory works for the launch of the construction of a modern gas and chemical plant in the Atyrau region (Newskaz, September 13). 

Additionally, Nursultan Nazarbayev announced that Seoul would participate in the production of rare-earth elements on Kazakh territory, providing technology transfers in exchange for these precious raw materials. Therefore, South Korea becomes the fifth foreign country, after Japan, Germany, France, and Russia, to receive the official “green light” with regard to this rapidly developing sector of Kazakhstan’s economy (see Eurasia Daily Monitor, September 12). In a recent interview, the Minister of Industry and New Technologies Asset Issekeshev specifically stressed the innovative nature of Kazakh-South Korean bilateral cooperation. According to Issekeshev, President Nazarbayev was particularly impressed during his visit to South Korea’s Innopolis Daedeok innovative cluster, which is comprised of five national universities, 30 research centers, 400 privately owned research organizations, and over 1,200 innovative companies (Kazinform, September 16). In the minister’s view, Kazakhstan makes an ideal destination for Seoul’s technological transfers, thanks to its political stability, friendly investment climate, and a favorable geostrategic location in Central Asia. 

Finally, the two countries agreed on South Korea’s active involvement in the development of Kazakhstan’s national system of high-speed trains and subway. President Nazarbayev, who was visiting the People’s Republic of China with a high-level delegation in February 2011, was presented with a model of a high-speed train link between Almaty and Astana designed by Chinese engineers. This ambitious project was expected to reduce travel time between Kazakhstan’s major cities from 13 hours, as this rail connection is currently ensured by Spanish-designed trains, to only four hours (I-News.kz, February 22, 2011). Several months later, a serious traffic accident occurred in one of the Chinese eastern provinces, taking the lives of 39 passengers and wounding 200 others (Rbc.ru, July 28, 2011). This tragic event led to a temporary freeze of contacts between Astana and Beijing on the issue of high-speed train construction. During Lee Myung-bak’s recent visit to Kazakhstan, he was finally permitted to unveil concrete plans for the development of this crucial transport sector in a country ranked ninth in the world in terms of territory. 

Despite its ever-growing contacts with Kazakhstan, South Korea still remains attached to its long-time Central Asian partner, Uzbekistan. The Uzbek leader Islam Karimov visited Seoul upon his colleague’s invitation between September 19–21. The two countries signed $5 billion worth of contracts, of which over $3 billion represent foreign direct investment in Uzbekistan’s economy. Since 1992, South Korea and Uzbekistan have signed more than 230 bilateral agreements. Uzbekistan is presently home to 400 companies with South Korean participation, while 66 of them are fully owned by Seoul-based businesses. Last year, the bilateral trade turnover surpassed $1.6 billion (Fergana News, September 24). Therefore, South Korea’s expanding presence in Central Asia aims at a long-term engagement.