United Press International - 06.25.2004

Kazakh prez walks US-Russia tightrope

By Martin Sieff, UPI Senior News Analyst

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (UPI) -- The two stories broke Friday in the newspapers of Kazakhstan: President Nursultan Nazarbayev had just attended the opening of the new Russian embassy with Vladimir Putin; And next week Nazarbayev will attend the NATO summit in Turkey.

Together these two small, apparently routine items capture the unique tightrope that the leaders of the five former Soviet republics of Central Asia -- but most of all Kazakhstan -- are walking at the dawn of the 21st century.

On the one hand, they take pains to stay on the coziest possible terms with still mighty Russia, which ruled them for well over a century in its czarist and Soviet incarnations and still dominates so many of their interests through its leadership of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

But on the other hand, these states, and none more vigorously than Kazakhstan, have also been energetically forging dynamic new ties to both east and west, especially to the United States and China. 

And so far, the key to independence, success and even survival has been for all of them, but especially enormous, oil-rich Kazakhstan is the ability to stay on that swaying, potentially perilous tightrope, neither alienating one side nor the other.

Thus it was that shrewd, experienced and canny President Nazarbayev, the communist boss of his vast, sprawling nation back when it was a Soviet republic, stressed his continuing close ties to Russia at the dedication of the massive new Russian embassy in his shining new capital of Astana this week.

In a report carried by the official Kazinform news agency in national newspapers Friday, Nazarbayev pointedly noted that the Russian embassy was the very first new diplomatic complex to be completed in Astana, itself the symbol of his ambitions for Kazakhstan's continued future prosperity and independence.

"This is the first embassy complex built in the young capital," the president said. "Despite our 1991 separation, we never lost ties of friendship."

Kazakhstan's positions on all international questions "always coincide" with those of Russia, he continued. "There are neither political nor economic problems between our countries."

Russian President Putin, who has spearheaded a so far remarkably successful drive to restore Russia's military and diplomatic clout in its neighboring Central Asian republics that for so long were part of the Soviet Union, emphasized his own respect for Kazakhstan's independence and dignity in his own remarks.

"Opening the embassy is not just a formal act; it is a serious, weighty sign of respect to Kazakhstan sovereignty," he said. "We unite our efforts. I hope the piece of Russian land (that is the embassy) in Kazakhstan will be the place where interaction acquires new incentives."

But the opening of the new Russian embassy was not the only news that Nazarbayev's presidential administration in Astana released for Friday's newspapers. It also revealed that he would attend the two-day summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Istanbul scheduled to start Friday.

For Nazarbayev has also proved brilliantly successful in establishing a secure and welcoming economic climate for foreign direct investment, especially from the United States. Over the past decade, a colossal $24 billion worth of FDI has flooded into Kazakhstan, overwhelmingly into its booming oil sector.

For Kazakhstan sits on enormous oil reserves estimated to be at least twice as large as those of the North Sea were before their development began more than 30 years ago. They are part of huge oil reserves in the Caspian Basin that may be as large as those of Iraq and Iran combined.

Since 1993, U.S. companies alone have invested more than $6 billion in Kazakhstan, focused on oil and gas, business services, telecommunications and electrical energy

For its part, Kazakhstan has earned high marks from both the Clinton and Bush administrations for its cooperation in renouncing nuclear weapons in 1993 and working energetically to remove nuclear warheads, nuclear-grade materials and their supporting infrastructure since then.

Nazarbayev has even run the very considerable risk of sending a token but highly symbolic force of 27 Kazakhstan sappers, or mine removal experts, to work as part of the "coalition of the willing" alongside U.S. forces in Iraq.

Nazarbayev therefore works hard to stay close to Washington and Moscow alike. And he even balances this with an equally vigorous and successful effort boost ties with Beijing as well.

Earlier this month, Kazakhstan closed a highly significant deal with China's national petroleum Corporation to construct a new pipeline to transport its Caspian oil to China's northwestern Xinjiang Province. Eventually the pipeline link will extend all the way to Shanghai.

And along with its continued loyal membership in the Russian-led Commonwealth of Independent States and its eagerness to stay close to NATO, Kazakhstan also remains equally active in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization that is led by both Russia and China.

Staying on the tightrope between Russia and the West is no easy trick, as other former Soviet republics like Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine have discovered, often at immense cost. But so far Nazarbayev has pulled it off with astonishing success. No wonder he is rushing from the embassy opening with Putin to the NATO summit in Istanbul. Taking care of such details is how he has stayed on the tightrope so well for so long.