Kazakhstan has signed an agreement with Belarus to supply oil and petroleum products to Minsk as part of a Belarusian effort to diversify its supply sources. Up to now, the country has depended overwhelmingly on cut-rate petrol and crude oil exports from Russia. But Moscow cut back on deliveries several weeks ago, meaning some income Minsk was making on re-selling to Ukraine has been shut down.

A Belarusian government spokesman the countries two prime ministers reached the agreement in the Kazakhstan capital, Nur-Sultan. But there were no details on actual volumes of Kazakhstan supplies to Belarus. Neither were pricing terms named. Belarus Premier Roman Golovcheko had already expressed interest in such an agreement last month.

News reports said Azerbaijan’s state oil company had agreed earlier this year to supply oil to Belarusian refineries. Azerbaijan is not an official ally of Moscow. Since its decisive defeat of Armenia in 2020, it has grown increasingly close to Turkey when it took back territories occupied by Yerevan for almost three decades, aided by years of support from Ankara.

Kazakhstan is a member of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), But given its strong economic position, it can afford to pursue relatively independent policies.