Merz’s sentence, in ARD’s account of the press conference, was that Germany is very interested in receiving oil from Kazakhstan as a substitute for the oil it no longer takes from Russia. Kazakhstan already ranks among Germany’s main suppliers, and Tokayev said the volume could rise. The two sides agreed a road map on raw materials that Merz described as work on the recognition of standards, joint analyses of supply chains and supply chains that hold under stress.
The oil line has a history. Kazakh crude reached the Schwedt refinery through the Druzhba pipeline until Russia halted the transit in the spring, by ARD’s reports of 22 April and 1 May, and neither leader named the route by which more of it would come.
Kazakhstan already ranks among Germany’s main suppliers, and Tokayev said the volume could rise.
Tokayev’s count at the press conference was more than 30 commercial documents worth about $2 billion, in Akorda’s text of his remarks; the forum’s own expectation that morning had been 37 projects and €1.8 billion. Euronews’s list of the forum’s documents ran to a geological-exploration partnership with the BGR, HMS Mining’s lithium exploration with a $500 million investment line, a memorandum with Siemens and a partnership between Samruk-Kazyna and Siemens Central Asia, green hydrogen between the science ministry and Svevind, farm machinery with Horsch and Claas, Baiterek with KfW and a mandate between the Development Bank of Kazakhstan and Deutsche Bank, Qazaq Kalium’s potash and boric-acid complex at Satimola with KfW and Euler Hermes, an airport project, and 23 further documents between ministries and companies.
At his talks with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Tokayev gave the frame: $4.5 billion of trade in 2025, $2.6 billion in the first 7 months of 2026, more than 1,400 companies with German capital in Kazakhstan and $8 billion of German investment over 20 years, Tengrinews reported at 20:26.
On Ukraine, Tokayev answered an ARD journalist that he considers Putin an outstanding statesman whom he knows well, that Kazakhstan insists on the territorial integrity of every state, and that he has spoken of freezing hostilities in Ukraine so that negotiations can begin; ARD added that his earlier attempts to move the Kremlin towards a freeze had brought nothing. Merz replied that the Wadephul-Lavrov meeting in New York had shown Russia was not interested in serious negotiations and that Germany would go on supporting Ukraine militarily, politically, financially and economically.
Wednesday takes Tokayev to Bavaria for talks with politicians and business, by Euronews’s schedule. Kazinform’s front carried one document from the visit on Wednesday morning: RWS KZ and Deutsche Bahn on the supply of railway wheels, at 10:21 Astana time.