China and Kazakhstan sign €11.4bn in deals at Shanghai AI summit

China and Kazakhstan have sealed more than 70 commercial agreements worth €11.4 billion, as President Xi Jinping declared ties between the two nations had reached a “new level” during a high-profile meeting on the sidelines of the World AI Conference in Shanghai.

Xi and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed off on the sweeping package of deals on Thursday, covering sectors from clean energy and port infrastructure to digital technology and agriculture. It’s one of the largest single tranches of bilateral agreements the two countries have concluded in recent years.

CATL battery plant anchors energy push

The headline industrial deal is a new battery manufacturing facility in Kazakhstan, backed by Chinese electric vehicle giant CATL. It’ll be Central Asia’s first plant of its kind — a significant milestone for a region that has long relied on fossil fuel exports and is now scrambling to diversify. Kazakhstan holds some of the world’s largest lithium and uranium deposits, giving the project obvious strategic weight beyond just the factory floor.

Beijing didn’t spell out the exact production capacity, but officials described the investment as a cornerstone of a broader green energy corridor stretching from western China into Central Asia.

Caspian port deal opens new trade route

A new terminal at Kazakhstan’s Caspian Sea port of Aktau also featured prominently. The project is designed to boost cargo capacity on the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route — a trade artery connecting China to Europe that bypasses Russia. Traffic on that corridor has surged since 2022. So the timing isn’t accidental.

The Aktau terminal deal is expected to more than double the port’s container handling capacity by 2028, according to a statement from Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Transport. That would make it a viable alternative gateway for Chinese goods heading west.

‘New level’ rhetoric, but real economic stakes

Xi’s language was notably warm. He described Kazakhstan as a “good neighbour, good friend and good partner,” and said relations had entered a “new period of high-quality development.” Tokayev, for his part, called China Kazakhstan’s “most important strategic partner.”

Still, behind the diplomatic warmth sit genuine economic pressures. Kazakhstan is walking a careful line between its historic ties with Russia and growing dependence on Chinese capital and infrastructure. The Shanghai deals deepen that dependence considerably.

“These agreements reflect the maturity and depth of our cooperation across every major sector,” a spokesperson for Kazakhstan’s presidential office said.

What comes next

The two sides said they’d establish a joint implementation committee to track progress on the agreements — a sign that both governments are aware past deals haven’t always translated cleanly into construction crews and functioning factories.

But the sheer scale of Thursday’s commitments, anchored by the CATL plant and the Caspian terminal, suggests this round is meant to stick. With Europe watching Central Asia more closely than ever, the geopolitical backdrop to these €11.4 billion in deals is anything but quiet.