Description
This paper examines how Kazakhstan, as a middle power, sustains and balances energy partnerships with both the European Union (EU) and China amid the emergence of a green multipolar order. Through a case study of Kazakhstan’s evolving energy transition, the paper traces the development of its multivector policy tools, including diversified financing and supplier portfolios, selective regulatory alignment with EU climate and sustainability frameworks, and governance arrangements designed to preserve flexibility. These instruments enable Kazakhstan to pursue simultaneous cooperation with both partners while maintaining strategic autonomy.
Recent geopolitical shifts have deepened Europe’s engagement through its search for low-carbon supply chains and standards, while China’s recalibrated Green Belt and Road Initiative has expanded through new renewable, grid, and hydrogen ventures. Together, these dynamics are reconfiguring Kazakhstan’s industrial base and regulatory landscape, opening new spaces of contestation beyond hydrocarbons.
By situating Kazakhstan within the broader transformation of global production and green industrialisation, the paper argues that the country’s multivectorism exemplifies middle-power agency in the multiplex order where states navigate overlapping regimes of sustainability, capital, and technology. The analysis contributes to debates on the political economy of transition and the emerging architecture of green multipolarity, showing that interdependence today is shaped less by alignment or dependency than by adaptive statecraft.
