Uzbek president’s visit to Astana exposed existence of a serious obstacle on the road to a Central Asian alliance

politics

Uzbek president’s visit to Astana exposed existence of a serious obstacle on the road to a Central Asian alliance

By SRI ⋅ May 7, 2008 ⋅

Uzbekistan has always been skeptical of Nursultan Nazarbayev’s integration initiatives. Neither does the president of Uzbekistan conceal his suspicions with regard to the true intents of the Kazakh leaders, believing them to be after regional leadership.

In 2002, Tashkent all but torpedoed the first summit of the Asian Conference for Cooperation and Measures of Trust, Kazakhstan’s most successful international project so far. Islam Karimov himself pointedly refused to attend the summit, and the envoy sent in his place lacked the authority to sign the final document agreed on in advance, the so called Alma-Ata Act. On the other hand, Karimov abstained from going public then and therefore enabled official Astana to pretend that everything was fine and dandy and proclaim the first document of the Asian Conference unanimously adopted.

Making preparations to receive the Uzbek president this time, Astana never expected direct support of the Central Asian Alliance idea from him. What it counted on was diplomatic lexicon traditionally used on official visits. Karimov disappointed his Kazakh hosts by being unexpectedly straightforward. “As far as Uzbekistan is concerned, this initiative is unacceptable. I’m saying it right here and now to prevent any further speculations on the matter,” he said. “Establishment of alliances such as this requires evenness of the levels of economic and social development. Unfortunately, we have too many matters to address yet… all and any alliances are therefore untimely.” “We’ve been through it already,” Karimov added to remind the audience that alliances like that had already been established more than once.

Ferghana.ru/Turkish Weekly