Kazakhstan’s president Nursultan Nazarbayev is in Germany for some days and has already met German chancellor Angela Merkel. Reporters Without Borders has already demanded that Merkel should raise press freedom issues with the guest. Let’s have a look at the press conference (all links in German) the two gave after the talks:

It’s Nazarbayev’s fifth visit to Germany, he’s a welcome guest in Merkel’s word. Apart from strong bilateral business ties, there are also human bridges in the form of the many repatriated Russian Germans who emigrated from Kazakhstan. One of them, who was present during some meetings, even had the same surname as chancellor Merkel.

While for instance bigger British and American companies in the energy sector have widely invested in the Central Asian country, German SMEs have so far shown proportionately smaller interest, something this visit was also aimed at addressing. Nazarbayev met with the German economy minister as well as with representatives of many German firms.

As with Russian president Putin, Merkel was also not shy to speak about the human rights situation in Kazakhstan:

I have also addressed that there are often complaints. We have spoken about that openly, and the President has explained again that especially the implementation, so the whole legal system, needs to be built. But there are efforts being made. I had the impression that we could speak without any barrier. I offered that, if there are questions related to jurisdiction and rule of law, we are happy to cooperate in this domain.

It’s quite interesting to note that ex-Soviet countries, 17 years into their independence, are still being awarded discounts for their infantile nationhood along the lines of “oh, you’re building a legal system from scratch, of course that takes time”. Sure, the establishment of a sound legal system has taken decades in the Western world, but the time during which points like Merkel’s make sense is slowly running out.

Nazarbayev’s reply is nothing new:

We have a free mass media. We have a system of political parties. There are more than 5,000 NGOs in Kazakhstan. The most important thing is that representatives of 130 nations are being guaranteed security in Kazakhstan.

(…)

If we will get the OSCE chairmanship, we will also try to implement European standards and values. We will do a lot for the security in our region. The problem with human rights does not lie with the consitution or with our laws, but in the way these laws are being implemented.

But it is an interesting question: Is the OSCE chairmanship an award for good past deeds or an incentive for further reform? The German foreign ministry’s Central Asian expert Gernot Erler tells Der Spiegel:

We think that we’d take Kazakhstan up on its promise by awarding the chairmanship, especially concerning the OSCE’s standards. There are ambitious reform projects under way there, also because proponents of the candicacy need good arguments.

For all of Germany’s at-times misguided pragmatism when it comes to Central Asia, I have to agree with Mr. Erler on this one. To make Kazakhstan chair an organisation of the OSCE’s weight - an engagement on this scale is unprecedented. It’s worth a shot.