The French President, Emmanuel Macron, is travelling to Central Asia this week on a mission, in part, to secure French nuclear power supplies. 

The problem he may face in doing so is that China may have already beat France to the punch.

The Élysée Palace said Marcon will travel to uranium and natural resource-rich Central Asian nations this week.

Macron will visit government leaders and Heads of State in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

France is hungry for nuclear energy, deriving some 70% of its power from nuclear.

As French influence in Africa is on the wane after the Niger coup and other troubles, the nation needs to secure long-term supply.

Marcon hopes both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan can help meet that goal.

Kazakhstan (mostly) and Uzbekistan combined supply some 45% of global uranium supply. 

More importantly, France and other EU nations are very keen to move away from Russia as an energy supplier. 

The President wants to build momentum on recent visits to Paris by leaders from the region and to ensure both nations don’t fall to the Dragon-Bear coalition of Russia and China, analysts suggested. 

“Kazakhstan is key to France’s energy security,” said Michael Levystone, a Paris-based researcher at the French Institute of International Relations told Bloomberg.

“Macron’s visit will act as a reminder that Paris is ready to step up cooperation,” he said.

However, France may be somewhat behind the curve.

China has recently been hoovering up much of the uranium supply from the region. 

The Chinese government is bankrolling huge nuclear power build-outs right now.

The country needs to secure major supply deals and President Xi was in the region earlier in 2023.

Legendary uranium investor Rick Rule suggested this week that China would be nearly unstoppable in securing supplies. 

“We have an ugly supply deficit,” he said.

“The Chinese government understands this…they have to have the producers lock in enough supply,” he said.

“The people who don’t come ahead are the people who have to compete with China for the uranium supply,” he said

Chinese President Xi was in the region earlier in 2023, signing off on major deals that see China as the number one customer for uranium supply.

The Macron visit will not be looked upon well by Beijing or Moscow.

“They (China and Russia) want basically the West to stay out of the region,” one analyst told Energy Intelligence earlier this year. 

The Kazakh story is indeed an interesting one. 

“In the backyard of a debilitated Russia and in the pathway of an ascendant China, Kazakhstan is warming into a hotspot of geostrategic interest in and of itself, as it seeks a way out from becoming entrapped between its two assertive neighbors,” a recent piece in Geopolitical Monitor is worth a read.