French President Emmanuel Macron who is also known one of the faces of European Union visited Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan as a part of his trip to Central Asia. His trip could be characterized as a combination of both national interests of France but also the Western interests. After EU’s decision to gradually decrease the energy imports from Russia after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, EU has shifted its interest towards countries such as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan for both natural resources but also for uranium-which France is already the first recipient of this uranium. 

Macron’s visit to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan can be characterized as an attempt to pull Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to side with the West while the Russia-Ukraine war continues. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the other hand, said that the West is trying to pull Russia’s neighbors, friends, allies away from it. These two countries are already refusing the recognize Russian invasion of Ukraine, therefore Western countries but mainly the European countries saw a chance to hit two birds with one stone in energy and foreign policy dimensions.