Last week, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a law ratifying a strategic partnership and cooperation agreement with the United Kingdom. With that move, Central Asia’s largest economy added Britain to its growing list of strategic partners, reinforcing Astana’s long-standing multi-vector foreign policy.
For London, meanwhile, the agreement marked another milestone in what some analysts have framed as a renewed contest for influence in Central Asia, an area where Britain has sought to strengthen its position over the past five years.
Kazakhstan already counts Russia, China, the United States, several European Union states including Italy, Germany, France, and the Netherlands, as well as Turkey, Azerbaijan and its Central Asian neighbors among its strategic partners. Britain has now joined that group as it seeks to revive its historical influence in the region.
That broader contest is often described through the language of a “New Great Game,” a phrase that draws on an older imperial rivalry. The term “Great Game” emerged in the 19th century to describe the geopolitical rivalry between the British and Russian Empires across Central and South Asia. The phrase was popularized by British officer, spy, and diplomat Arthur Conolly, who compared the complex web of political intrigues to a vast strategic board game stretching across half a continent.
Since 2022, observers say London has intensified its engagement in this geopolitical competition, aimed partly at limiting Russian and Chinese dominance in Central Asia. At stake are key sectors such as critical minerals, including rare earths, as well as logistics corridors, particularly the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, also known as the Middle Corridor.
In December 2023, the UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee published a report titled Countries at the Crossroads: UK Engagement in Central Asia. The report criticized what it described as ineffective engagement by British ministers with the governments of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. One of the report’s central recommendations was that London should more actively counter Russian influence in the region.
In recent years, British embassies across Central Asia have established offices linked to the UK’s international development structures, expanding engagement with local civil society groups. Through the British Council, London has also expanded its soft power initiatives, financing programs such as Creative Central Asia and Creative Spark. More than 60 universities have joined these programs, with participation exceeding 65,000 people.
Britain also continues to operate the Chevening scholarship program, under which young political and public sector figures from Central Asia study in the UK before often returning to influential positions in their home countries.
For Kazakhstan’s ambitious younger generation, Britain’s appeal may also be reinforced by symbolic success stories. On May 8, the same day Tokayev signed the strategic partnership into law, Kazakhstan-born Sanjar Abishev was elected to Westminster City Council, representing London’s prestigious St James’s district. Abishev’s election drew attention in Kazakhstan as a symbolic example of the country’s growing diaspora presence in Britain. Little is publicly known about Abishev, though one detail stands out: he entered politics only in 2022 after previously running a marketing agency that had worked with major brands since 2016.
In 2024, then-British Foreign Secretary David Cameron visited Central Asia in what many observers viewed as a strategic tour assessing London’s growing regional role. During the trip, he openly framed Britain’s approach in contrast to Russia and China.
“We are not telling Kazakhstan or any other country that you must choose or asking you not to choose partnership and trade with Russia or China or anyone else. We are here because we believe you should have the option of choosing partnership with us in ways that positively contribute both to our shared security and our shared prosperity,” Cameron said during the visit.
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have emerged as the primary focus of Britain’s diplomatic and economic efforts in Central Asia, a trend increasingly reflected in trade and investment figures.
By the end of 2025, bilateral trade between Britain and Kazakhstan had reached $1.6 billion, an increase of 84%. More than 500 companies with British capital are now operating in Kazakhstan, implementing projects in priority sectors including critical minerals, green energy, digital technologies, and artificial intelligence.
Trade turnover between Britain and Uzbekistan has doubled over the past five years. As of February 1, 2026, Uzbekistan hosted 251 enterprises involving British capital. Uzbek sovereign and corporate bonds worth more than $15 billion have also been listed on the London Stock Exchange.
In February 2026, London hosted the inaugural CA5+UK ministerial meeting. Foreign ministers from all five Central Asian states traveled to the British capital to discuss future cooperation.
During the meeting, Britain and Kazakhstan approved a strategic partnership roadmap on critical minerals through 2027, while Tashkent and London signed a memorandum of understanding.
Kazakhstan has now formally ratified its strategic partnership agreement with Britain, covering economic cooperation, education, and legal affairs.
Under the agreement, the two sides plan to expand investment opportunities in energy, critical minerals, including rare earths, and the IT sector; coordinate more closely on law enforcement and rule-of-law initiatives; and broaden educational exchanges, including the expansion of British university partnerships and campuses in Kazakhstan.
The agreement gives Britain another opening in a region where Kazakhstan and its neighbors are seeking wider diplomatic and economic options. For Astana, it fits the logic of multi-vector foreign policy. For London, it offers a practical route back into a region where influence is increasingly measured through minerals, education, transport corridors, and finance.
