ASTANA — President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev will visit Germany from Sept. 29-Oct. 1, with meetings in Berlin and Munich coming at a time when Kazakh-German relations have grown significantly in both political and economic terms, but are also entering a more demanding stage.
Germany is one of Kazakhstan’s key European partners for investment, technology and industrial cooperation. For Berlin, Kazakhstan has become increasingly important as a source of energy and critical raw materials and as part of efforts to diversify supply chains.
The question now is whether those complementary interests can translate into deeper industrial ties, particularly in processing, manufacturing and technology. Munich is more than a stop on Tokayev’s German visit The Munich part of the visit deserves particular attention because Bavaria is significant in Kazakhstan’s economic engagement with Germany.
Bilateral trade between Kazakhstan and Bavaria reached 3.4 billion euros in 2025, putting Bavaria first among Germany’s federal states by trade with Kazakhstan, according to Kazakhstan’s Prime Minister’s Office. The two sides have expanded cooperation in industry, agriculture, technology and raw materials, with German companies including Horsch, Linde Gas and Rhenus already operating in Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan-Bavarian Investment Roundtable in Munich in January 2023. Photo credit: Kazakh Invest The significance of Bavaria is not only the size of its trade with Kazakhstan. It also lies in the structure of its economy, with strong positions in manufacturing, engineering and technology.
For Kazakhstan, closer ties with such a region fit its broader effort to attract German companies into local production rather than rely mainly on imports of finished equipment. That makes Munich a useful lens through which to view the wider relationship. It offers a closer look at whether the strategic agenda discussed between governments in Berlin will translate into decisions by companies.
Kazakhstan seeks to change its role in the relationship The push for a more advanced economic relationship has been building since Tokayev’s visit to Berlin in September 2023. At the time, Kazakhstan and Germany were discussing critical raw materials, green energy, transport and logistics and greater German investment in non-resource sectors.
Tokayev proposed a consortium for joint raw-materials projects and invited German companies to help develop production in Kazakhstan. Bilateral trade rose 25% to $2.8 billion in 2022, while German businesses invested almost $6 billion in Kazakhstan, nearly 90% of it outside the resource sector.
A year later, when German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made his first visit to Kazakhstan in 14 years, the agenda had expanded to energy, green transformation, mining, transport and logistics, agriculture and climate cooperation. A business forum in Astana produced 36 documents worth $6.3 billion covering mechanical engineering, innovation, logistics, petrochemicals, information technology and industrial automation.
The relationship continued to grow in 2025. Bilateral trade reached $4.4 billion, up 9.5% from the previous year. German investment rose 28.5% to $700 million, bringing cumulative German investment since 2005 to about $7.8 billion. More than 1,100 companies with German capital operate in Kazakhstan.