SAMARKAND: French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Uzbekistan on Wednesday evening after a trip to Kazakhstan, part of a twoday tour to boost France`s footprint in Central Asia.

The French leader`s visit comes as European nations jostle for influence in the resource-rich region, where Russia, China, Turkiye and Europe all have economic interests.

Visiting Kazakhstan`s capital Astana earlier, Macron said he wanted to `strengthen ... complement and accelerate` France`s partnership with the country.

Macron acknowledged the `geopolitical pressures` being put on Kazakhstan, which borders Russia to its north and China to its east. `I do not underestimate the geopolitical difficulties, the pressures, sometimes the jostling to which you may be subjected,` Macron told Kazakhstan`s president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

`In a world where great powers want to become hegemonies and where regional powers are becoming unpredictable,` the French president said he welcomed Kazakhstan`s `refusal ... to take the route of becoming a vassal.

Tokayev in turn said France was his country`s `key and reliable partner in the EU` and that he wanted to give their partnership `extra impetus` `Kazakhstan is the world`s top uranium producer, contributing over a quarter of nuclear fuel consumed in Europe,` Tokayev said.

`With nuclear power comprising 63 per cent of France`s energy sector, there is vast potential for further cooperation,` he added.

The leaders signed a series of contracts in sectors ranging from minerals and energy to pharmaceuticals and aerospace.-AFP