Kazak President expresses willingness to stay in office for as long as his health holds; Kazakh Foreign Minister visits Brussels; Kazakhstan capital Astana to host 7th Winter Asian Games; USAID presents a plan for a rail corridor linking Kyrgyzstan with C
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    • Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev has stated that he is willing to stay in office for as long as his health holds. He made these remarks while speaking in an annual address to the nation at a joint meeting of the parliament’s houses. It would be worth noting that President Nazarbayev has been offered huge public support, through a petition signed by half the electorate or five million citizens, for a referendum proposal that would keep him in power until 2020. Kazakhstan’s upper and lower chambers of parliament unanimously agreed earlier this month to change the constitution in a move that would permit the nation to vote in a referendum on whether to drop presidential elections in 2012 and 2017.1

    The Kazakh Secretary of State and Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev visited Brussels and met with EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Catherine Ashton and other EU officials. Talks were held on a range of issues such as regional security, situation in Kyrgyzstan, international efforts to respond to the nuclear program underway in Iran. However the main focus of the deliberations between both sides was on upping economic and trade ties by agreeing to speedily conclude a new cooperation framework agreement as the old partnership forged two decades ago have expired.2

    Meanwhile, Kazakhstan capital Astana is set to host the 7th winter Asian Games scheduled from January 30 to February 6, 2011. The security has been tightened security at its major transportation facilities especially in the light of the recent January 24 terrorist attack in Moscow’s Domodedovo airport which killed at least 35 people.3

    Reports noted that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) presented a study detailing a proposed multi-modal rail corridor that would link Kyrgyzstan with China. This is aimed at facilitating travel, trade and transport throughout Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. The proposed route would link rail stations in Osh in Southern Kyrgyzstan and Balykchy in Northern Kyrgyzstan with Kashgar, China.4

    Turkish Petroleum International Company (TPIC) President Mithat Cansiz has confirmed that the company is in negotiations with Kyrgyz government officials to supply thousands of tons of jet fuel to the American military base of Manas. Manas air base is the transit was opened in December 2001 as a critical transit point to support U.S. military operations in Afghanistan.5 Meanwhile reports noted that Kyrgyzstan’s State Customs Service is training Afghan border control officers in a five-week course on how to crack down on smuggling while speeding the flow of goods across borders.6 This is being done with Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) assistance.

    Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon has offered his support to work closely on security issues with his Russian counterpart over the suicide blast at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport. The two leaders also noted that they supported the resumption of the Tajik-Russian Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation. Two Tajiks were killed and 16 injured in the blast.7

    Reports noted that Turkmenistan is beefing up its armed forces, vowing to fight more energetically against transnational drug smuggling and reaffirming its neutrality at the same time. President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov stated on January 27, "In accordance with the military doctrine of neutral Turkmenistan that takes a purely defensive character aimed at further strengthening the defense capability of the national army, we will systematically strengthen its logistical base at the expense of the most advanced military equipment and weapons," the Turkmen leader said. Reports noted that this is being done in view of keeping Turkmenistan out of the Russian-controlled Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), as well as the Russian- and Chinese-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).8

    Uzbekistan’s leader Islam Karimov visited Brussels and made efforts to boost his country’s ties with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) during a meeting with NATO Chief Rasmussen at its headquarters in Brussels on Monday. Karimov and Rasmussen discussed Uzbekistan’s 6+3 initiative for Afghanistan that proposes adding NATO to the current 6+2 grouping of Afghanistan’s three Central Asian neighbors, the United States and Russia. The two sides discussed boosting joint activities in countering drug trafficking and terrorism, on threat of the proliferation of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, and the processes involved in planning decisions within NATO.9

    In other developments, the European Union is prepared to open a representative office in the Uzbekistan capital of Tashkent. The deal was brokered through Uzbek President Islam Karimov’s visit in the last week of January to Brussels to meet with European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) representatives. The opening of the office at Tashkent will renew its relations with EU which had soured since the brutal crack down on protesters in Andijan by the former.10

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