Uzbek and Kazak Leaders to Talk Regional Security
Uzbek and Kazak Leaders to Talk Regional Security
Security concerns in Central Asia and Afghanistan and economic issues are likely to top the agenda when Uzbek president Islam Karimov visits his Kazak counterpart Nursultan Nazarbaev next week.
The Kazak ambassador in Tashkent, Boribay Jeksembin, described Karimov’s trip to Astana on September 6-7 as a logical continuation of the regular meetings between him and Nazarbaev.
Those meetings are not frequent, despite the two states sharing a common border. The Uzbek and Kazak leaders last met one to one, as opposed to at former Soviet group meetings, when Nazarbaev was in Uzbekistan in 2010.
Jeksembin said the talks would seek “solutions to be found on urgent regional issues”.
Analysts say that probably means the implications of the 2014 withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan, the recent violence in Tajikistan’s Badakhshan province, and Islamic militant activity in Central Asia.
Other commentators say economic matters may dominate, specifically energy. Reuters news agency reported in May that Uzbekistan was to start shipping natural gas to China via a pipeline running from Central Asia this year. The pipeline runs from Turkmenistan through Uzbekistan and Kazakstan to China.
This article was produced as part of IWPR's News Briefing Central Asia output, funded by the National Endowment for Democracy.
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