EURASIA INSIGHT
11/05/08
Print this article
Email this article
Kazakhstan’s parliament on November 5 endorsed two measures with potentially important ramifications for US-Kazakhstani strategic cooperation, especially on matters relating to the ongoing Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.
Under terms outlined in the measures, Kazakhstan is set to ease overflight requirements for US and NATO aircraft involved in re-supply missions to Afghanistan. The agreement also creates the possibility that Kazakhstan would facilitate an overland supply route connecting the Caspian Basin to Afghanistan.
According to a report posted on the Gazeta.kz website, the measures just approved by parliament were originally negotiated in late 2001 and mid-2002, during the immediate aftermath of the September 11 terrorism tragedy in the United States. Officials did not offer an explanation as to why ratification took so long. Circumstantial evidence suggests that the significant decay in Afghanistan’s security situation over the past year played a major role in spurring Kazakhstani legislators into action. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
Posted November 5, 2008 © Eurasianet
http://www.eurasianet.org
|
The Central Eurasia Project aims, through its website,
meetings, papers, and grants, to foster a more informed
debate about the social, political and economic
developments of the Caucasus and Central Asia.
It is a program of the Open Society
Institute-New York. The Open Society Institute-New
York is a private operating and grantmaking foundation
that promotes the development of open societies around
the world by supporting educational, social, and legal
reform, and by encouraging alternative
approaches to complex and controversial issues.
The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily
represent the position of the Open Society Institute and
are the sole responsibility of the author or
authors.
|
|
