By Vestnik Kavkaza
Last week the deputy head of the State Department of the USA, William Burns, visited Kazakhstan. After meeting with Nursultan Nazarbayev he stated that Washington aims at long-term cooperation with Kazakhstan and the countries of Central Asia, as the Ukrainian crisis and the transitional period in Afghanistan “encourage improvement of partnership between the nations.”
Leonid Gusev, a senior scientist of the Institute of International Research of the MGIMO, assessed the cooperation for Vestnik Kavkaza.
- The USA intensified its activity in Central Asia in 2014. Deputies of the Secretary of State visited all countries of the region. What is the reason for this?
- There is no surprise. It is connected with the situation over Ukraine and the crisis which has been developing since February. The USA is trying to find out the positions of almost all post-Soviet states and primarily those which have close relations with Russia. All of them, except for Turkmenistan, are members of the CSTO and the SOC. Kazakhstan is a member of the Customs Union and the formative Eurasian Union. President Nazarbayev supported the Russian administration. And it seems the USA wants to influence the further activity of Central Asian countries and Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan cooperates intensively with the United States within the framework of its multi-vector policy. American oil and gas companies participate in oil and gas production on the shelf of the Caspian Sea. The program of cooperation between the USA and Kazakhstan has been operating for 20 years. Moreover, there is the situation over Afghanistan. It was the main direction for the USA, it paled into insignificance due to the Ukrainian events, but still it remains one of the main targets. What will happen when American and NATO troops withdraw from Afghanistan? Kazakhstan plays a key role in the situation, as the Kazakh leader has tried many times to negotiate with the Taliban.
- Soon the agreement on establishing the Eurasian Economic Union will be signed. What will be American's future steps in the region?
- They can’t prevent the signing of the agreement. But they can influence countries of Central Asia to postpone the signing. We can see that the situation is ambiguous in Kyrgyzstan. They stated that they are postponing participation in the Customs Union. Chinese activity is important in this case, as Beijing offered Bishkek participation in its project – the Great Silk Route. It is also a customs union, and China plans to involve countries of Central Asia in it.
The USA has to control the region, considering the problem of Afghanistan and international supplies. Probably certain contracts and projects will be offered, as is common practice in places where oil and gas resources are produced – Central America, Venezuela, other countries of the Caribbean Region, African states, Angola, Nigeria and Central Asia.
- Russian experts discuss Nursultan Nazarbayev’s rejection of participation in the informal summit of the CSTO on May 8th in favor of a meeting with the Deputy Secretary of State of the USA, William Burns. Some say Kazakhstan is reconsidering its foreign policy priorities. What do you think the real reason for the rejection is?
- I don’t think Kazakhstan is reconsidering its political priorities. Kazakhstan has always had a multi-vectoral policy, and the Kazakh administration has never hidden that they work with all countries equally. Yes, Russia has always been distinguished as the main brotherly partner, as Kazakhstan's territories used to belong to the Russian Empire. At the same time, Kazakhstan treats kindly all other countries of the world, especially such important ones as the USA. Kazakhstan makes it clear that cooperation with the USA is a priority. However, it doesn’t mean cooling of relations between Russia and Kazakhstan and doesn’t influence Astana’s participation in projects in the post-Soviet space, such as the CSTO.
This is a demonstration that the foreign policy of Kazakhstan is multi-vectoral; the state pays attention not only to its traditional partners, i.e. Russia and Belarus, but also to Western partners.