Kazakhstani President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said September 28 his country is ready to increase its supply of oil to Germany.

Kazakhstan has shipped roughly 500,000 metric tons of crude oil to Germany’s Schwedt refinery so far through 2023, according to Reuters.

"At our German friends' request, I have confirmed our country's readiness to increase oil supplies and make them long-term," Tokayev said during a briefing, without specifying by how much shipments will increase.

"Kazakhstan is an important partner for us to broaden our supply channels, for example in the import of crude oil, and to make us independent of Russian energy supplies," said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during the same briefing. "We also look to Kazakhstan as a partner when it comes to critical raw materials to shape the energy transition. And we agree that the necessary transport routes must be expanded more quickly."

Tokayev added that Germany should not worry that Kazakhstan will try to help Russia circumvent Western sanctions due to its invasion of Ukraine. In fact, Tokayev said that Kazakhstan has continually called for peace talks to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.

"The time has come for rational, I would say wise, diplomacy," Tokayev said. "It is time to end mutual accusations and begin talking business in order to find the basis for peace talks that would be acceptable to both sides."