KAZAKHSTAN READY TO WORK WITH NEW RUSSIAN CABINET
ALMATY, May 19 (Interfax-Kazakhstan) The Kazakh government “is prepared to work” with Russian Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin and his Cabinet, Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Kasymzhomart Tokayev said at a video press conference Wednesday.
Cooperation between Russia and Kazakhstan is “of an objective nature,” and it is not under the influence of a head of government in eithercountry, Tokayev said. However, contacts betweenRussian President Boris Yeltsin and his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev are very important, he said.
Bilateral talks are under way on determining a modified dividing line in the Caspian Sea, he said. These talks are “of a complex technical nature,” he said. “The current boundaries of the Caspian Sea must be defined. We do not see a problem with regard to the political will on either side,” he said. “The pertinent protocol” will be signed after the talks, he said, adding that he hopes this document will be signed in 2000.
Yeltsin and Nazarbayev signed an agreement on diving the Caspian floor into national sectors along the medium line principle last spring.
TERROR SAID TO SPREAD TO KAZAKHSTAN FROM NUMBER OF STATES
ASTANA, May 19 (Interfax-Kazakhstan) The situations in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Chechnya, and other “volatile spots” poses a real threat to Kazakhstan “as sources that may spread terror across the republic,” Chairman of the Kazakh National Security Committee KNB Nurtai Abykayev said while addressing the Kazakh Parliament’s lower house on Wednesday.
Although “terrorism has become a world-wide practice of political confrontation and religious extremism, there have been nocases political terror” in Kazakhstan so far, the KNB chairman said. However, participants in terrorist acts perpetrated in other countries, have been “repeatedly” detained in Kazakhstan, Abykayev said. Also disturbing is separatism, which is being fomented by the Uigur and Kurdish diasporas.
Kazakhstan also has criminal terrorism, which is manifested in contract murders, in self-made explosive devices, and in criminal gang activity, KNB chairman said.
According to him, anti-terrorist units in the republic will be formed on the basis of “Arystan” which is a special task force, subordinate immediately to Kazakh president.
Work to organize an anti-terror center is already under way in Kazakhstan with U.S. and French assistance, Abykayev said.
NOTHING THREATENS KAZAKHSTAN’S STABILITY - FOREIGN MINISTER
ALMATY, May 19 (Interfax-Kazakhstan) There are no external threats tothestabilityor security of Kazakhstan, ForeignMinister Kasymzhomart Tokayev said at a Wednesday video news conference.
He said this situation was achieved by diplomatic means. Kazakhstan has good and predictable relations with both its neighbors and countries outside the former Soviet Union, especially with Russia and China, he said.
Kazakhstan will remain attractive to investors despite the crises, Tokayev said. He called for liberalizing land and oil laws. Tax preferences for investors will continue, he said.
In the context of the criticism of Kazakhstan during recent hearings in the U.S. Congress and by OSCE representatives, he said the existence of an opposition and its press are elements of democracy in Kazakhstan. He said the country has the right to express its own opinion on the development of democracy.
Tokayev said the Kazakh leadership will firmly continue the policy of expanding democracy.
He said relations with the United States will remain stable because Washington understands the significance of Kazakhstan for Central Asia.
He named as a strategic project the embassy compound under construction in Astana. He said eight embassies in the old capital, Almaty, have their missions in Astana. Tokayev said he was sure that in time the diplomatic corps will undoubtedly move to the new capital.
By Michael Lelyveld
Boston, 18 May (RFE/RL)
An agreement allowing Turkmenistan to sell its excess electricity to Turkey may offer relief to the Central Asian nation and open a new phase in regional trade of electric power.
Under a pact signed May 12, Turkey will buy 750 million kilowatt-hours of power a year from distant Turkmenistan, using lines through Iran starting next year. The deal is modest in light of Turkey’s energy needs, but it may point the way toward future supplies.
Turkmenistan and Iran have been working to link their power grids this month. Turkey plans to build a new 100-megawatt line to Iran within a year to complete the circuit for electricity imports, which are planned to run for the following six years.
While much of the political focus in the region has been on oil and gas pipelines, trade in electricity has been slowly gaining ground. Pipelines have been stalled by political resistance and doubts about finance. But the delays appear to be promoting progress on electricity schemes as an alternative.
As a practical matter, sales of gas and electricity amount to much the same thing, since Turkey’s gas needs are the result of its growing demand for electric power. In the case of Turkmenistan, the motivation also stems from the difficulty of getting gas out of the isolated country. Turkmenistan’s gas plans continue to face hurdles on several fronts.
To the east, the country is trying to restart the long-stalled project to build a gas line through Afghanistan to Pakistan. But there is no sign that a major western company will replace U.S.-based Unocal Corp., which withdrew from the pipeline consortium last year.
To the west, a trans-Caspian gas line to Turkey still awaits financing and settlement of a border dispute with Azerbaijan. Competition from a Russian-Italian venture to pipe gas across the Black Sea has raised doubts about whether Turkey needs gas from both sources at the same time.
Turkmenistan has also been disappointed by its gas sales to Ukraine following a lapse of nearly two years. After three months of receiving gas through Russian pipelines, Ukraine moved to curtail the purchases because it was unable to pay. Turkmenistan said last month it would continue deliveries, despite the arrears.
But problems for pipelines and gas may not rule out greater success with electricity. Turkmenistan has been working with Turkish firms on delivering electricity both through Iran to Turkey and through Afghanistan to Pakistan.
Electric generation can give Turkmenistan a way to benefit from the huge gas reserves that it has been unable to export. The country’s gas production last year was only about one-seventh of its peak during Soviet days.
Estimates of Turkmenistan’s excess generating capacity available for export range from 7 billion to 12 billion kilowatt hours per year. The country has started to upgrade its power plants with new gas turbines to increase output even further. New lines and technology may help reduce the high transmission losses which are common in the region.
The Turkmenistan-Turkey deal is a variation of a failed Iranian plan in 1996 to sell electricity to Turkey instead of gas. Turkey insisted on an agreement to import Iranian gas instead, so that it could generate its own electric power. The substitution of Turkmenistan’s electricity in the scheme may now indicate that Ankara has more trust in Ashgabat than in Tehran as a power supplier. But regional swaps of electricity or a pooling arrangement would make more sense to reduce transmission distances and loss.
Another possible interpretation is that the deal is in reality a swap, with Turkmenistan supplying electricity to Iran while Iran delivers power to Turkey. Publicizing the arrangement as one between Turkmenistan and Turkey may raise fewer objections in the United States.
Aside from avoiding many of the problems of building pipelines, electricity links could provide the flexibility to take advantage of short-term and seasonal power needs. Iran announced just such an arrangement with Armenia last month.
As part of the deal, Armenia will supply Iran with electricity for the current six-month period, when Iran’s demand is high. Iran will then supply an equal amount of power to Armenia for the following six months, during Armenia’s peak consumption period.
Iran is also working on an agreement with neighboring Pakistan to supply electricity to its southern province of Baluchistan.
What appears to be emerging from this flurry of electricity deals is a more rational use of the region’s energy resources. So far, the development seems to be less susceptible to the political pressures that have turned oil and gas pipeline development into the region’s great game.
It is also notable that U.S. penalties under the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act of 1996 apply only to investment in Iran’s petroleum sector and do not affect the transit of electricity.
While Washington may frown on electricity transit through Iran, it is unclear whether it will try to block the new trade. But if electricity swaps develop on a larger scale, they could reduce Ankara’s need for a trans-Caspian gas pipeline.
TASHKENT, May. 18 (AFP)
A senior Uzbek drug-fighting official accused the government of Tajikistan Monday of taking kickbacks from the Central Asian drug cartels.
The director of the National Center to Fight Narcotics told AFP that drug money was even being funneled to the office of Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov.
“Our situation is far from Tajikistan’s, where according to our information, the illegal narcotics business controls some government leaders and the money even goes to the presidential apparatus,” Kurban Baimuradov told AFP.
The Central Asian republic has repeatedly criticized Tajikistan and the Taliban-controlled regions of Afghanistan for failing to stamp out drug dealers who transport narcotics through Uzbekistan to western Europe.
Uzbek security forces have seized some 1,500 kilograms (3,306 pounds) of narcotics in the first five months of the year, Baimuradov said.
In 1998, the republic confiscated 3,206 kilograms (7,068 pounds) of drugs.
One-third of the narcotics seized so far this year were taken in a single drug bust on May 4 in which opium, hashish and heroin were discovered on a cargo train from Tajikistan bound for Russia.
Uzbek customs agents stopped the train in the town of Uzun in southern Uzbekistan near the Tajik border.
But Baimuradov admitted that the majority of drug shipments moving through the region are still being shipped undetected through Central Asia’s porous borders.
Uzbekistan only nabs 10 to 15 percent of the illegal drugs that cross its territory, he said.
President Islam Karimov said last June that about 80 percent of the drugs sold on the streets of western Europe come from Afghanistan.
“The Afghan government and the coalition of opposition troops buy weapons, which are issued from narcotics sales,” Baimuradov said, adding that 80,000 to 95,000 hectares (197,000 to 234,000 acres) are sowed to grow crops to produce narcotics in the war-torn country.
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
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