Current Bulletin Issue - Volume 18, Bulletin 2, June 2005

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Islam in Europe Egypt Lebanon Jordan

Iraq Iran Philippine Republic

THE CHALLENGE TO U.S. INFLUENCE IN CENTRAL ASIA

On the 5thof July 2005, a big color photograph showing the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and the President of China, Hu Jintao, in Astana with the Presidents of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan was published in many parts of the globe, including Egypt’s “Middle East Times,” which commented as follows:

The leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a six-nation security bloc, called for a deadline for the pullout of Western bases from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan and slammed outside interference in their affairs at a summit in the Kazakh capital Astana on Tuesday.

At the meeting, the SCO, which includes Russia, China, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, signed a declaration demanding deadlines for the evacuation of the US-led coalition’s military bases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, set up in 2001 to aid the toppling of Afghanistan's Taleban leadership. "Since the active phase of the military anti-terrorist operation in Afghanistan is over, [SCO] member states ... consider it essential that the relevant participants in the anti-terrorist coalition set deadlines for the temporary use" of their bases in Central Asia, the declaration read. Putin and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao signed a similar declaration on the “21st century international order” in Moscow last week.

The moves follow repeated complaints by Uzbek President Islam Karimov that the West instigated uprisings in four former Soviet republics ( Ukraine, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan) during the last two years. The four leaders also included a clause on the inadmissibility of "monopolizing or dominating international affairs" - apparently a reference to growing US influence in Central Asia. Templates and standards should not “be imposed by force, or the threat of force," Russian President Vladimir Putin said. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev added: "There should be no interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states."

The Shanghai group leaders also signed a commitment not to harbor persons sought by each other's security forces. This appeared to fly in the face of recent Western criticism of the mountain republic of Kyrgyzstan for handing back to
Uzbek authorities four people who fled the May violence in eastern Uzbekistan. The Shanghai group has made fighting extremism in the region its top priority, while also trying to use the forum to boost economic ties. Human rights groups claim that member states use the perceived threat of extremism as an excuse to crack down on the political opposition and other dissenters.

Relations between Central Asian states and Western countries have cooled since the events in Uzbekistan in May, amid condemnation from human rights groups that claim that Uzbek troops killed hundreds of unarmed civilians.

Karimov thanked the leaders of Russia and China for their support, saying that outside forces were threatening to "hijack stability and impose their model of development" on Central Asia. The New York-based Human Rights Watch demanded a condemnation of the military crackdown in Uzbekistan.

The two main coalition bases, at Karshi-Khanabad in Uzbekistan and at Manas in Kyrgyzstan, have been used to support US-led operations in Afghanistan since 2001. Both are predominantly staffed by US forces, though other states had earlier maintained some forces at the Kyrgyz base. Germany also has a few hundred military personnel, most of them engineering and medical staff, at a separate base in Uzbekistan, Termez, while a few hundred French forces operate from Tajikistan's main airport in Dushanbe.

Note: This article is based on the Egyptian Middle East Times report from Astana on 5 July 2005. It reflects the first serious attempt to limit US influence in Asia. If it succeeds, the Western investments in Kazakhstan oil and gas may be affected.