Kazakhstan and Russia are strategic partners and allies - Bulat Sultanov
"To date we see the global tendency caused by formation of a poly-centric world. Presidents of Kazakhstan and Russia and Chairman of the People's Republic of China stated their aspiration for facilitating formation of a "poly-centric world" to establish "fairer and more rational international world order. They announced it within the negotiations held in Beijing on September 27, 2010.
However, the U.S. side does not agree with such scenario of development of the world history. Delivering a speech at a sitting of the U.S. Council on foreign Relations (Washington DC) on September 8, 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the U.S.A. play and will play a leading role in the new era, "because global leadership is not an obligation, but an unprecedented opportunity".
Nevertheless, BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are considered today as new global economic and political centers of the world, three of which share borders or are in close proximity to Central Asia and express terest in our region.
Currently we can see China's increasing aspiration for entering the markets of the European Union and Middle East through the Central Asian territory.
Turkey, Iran, India, Japan and South Korea also try to join the competitive struggle for control over energy sources in Central Asia and potential routes of their transportation.
Meanwhile, Central Asia is steadily transformed into the zone of transit and further spread of terrorism, religious extremism and drug-trafficking. The reasons of this process are complicated socio-economic situation and incompleteness of the political reforms in majority of the CA countries.
Alongside, the situation in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Xinjiang-Uyghur and Tibet Autonomous Regions in China negatively influence on our region. Kyrgyzstan has recently joined the group of countries with regional instability.
The situation in Tajikistan has also worsened in recent years caused by activation of Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in northern Afghanistan aimed at disruption of cargo supply for NATO via the northern route.
In fact, the undeclared war continues still in the Northern Caucasus of the Russian Federation where the workers of the law-enforcement system are killed and civilians die in firefights and explosions.
If we try to systematize the existing and potential "hot" spots which are in proximity to the Kazakh borders, we will see that such tenses occur primarily in the countries rich in energy sources (oil, gas, uranium) or through which functioning or potential pipelines run.
The existing systems of global and regional security demonstrate their inefficiency in modern conditions. The situation worsens by global natural-climate catastrophes, ecological and humanitarian disasters, poverty, hunger, epidemics, inter-ethnic and inter-religious conflicts. The floods in Eastern Europe, Pakistan, China, the draught and fires in Russia, South Europe this year once again showed vulnerability of human civilization and necessity of adoption of collective measures as well as search for reliable partners and allies who will be ready to help in difficult time.
Basing on these parameters, we can say that Kazakhstan and Russia are not only strategic partners, but also natural allies. Close cooperation within the EurAsEC, CSTO, Common Economic Space and Customs Union are the best examples of the countries' deep integration. Russia as a nuclear empire is one the guarantors of Kazakhstan's national security. Kazakhstan helps Russia in countering various challenges and threats emerging in Central Asia. It also links Russia with the countries of the region.
The events which took place in August 2008 in Transcaucasia prove that in case of need Russia can provide effective military support for protecting its allies, without permission of the UN, NATO, EU and other international organizations. This radically changed the situation in military-political sphere on the Euro-Asian space taking into account the Afghan situation.
Sooner or later the forces of NATO will leave Afghanistan and we cannot rule out the possibility of penetration of terrorist groups through Tajikistan to Kyrgyzstan and to borders of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan as it was in 1999 and 2000.
Development of mutually beneficial cooperation between Kazakhstan and Russia is explained in many extents by commonality of history, culture, traditions and mentality. Moreover, Kazakhstan and Russia experience similar poly-ethnic situation: approximately 1 mln ethnic Kazakhs live in Russia and more than 4 mln Russians live in our country.
Russian experts agree that Russia will not be able to respond alone adequately to the challenges set to it: their number is too big and they are too serious for one country. But when it comes to possible allies and partners of the country, the experts' opinions vary.
"Liberals" say that European and North American countries only can become the allies of Russia, but not China or, for example, Islamic states. According to them, the West is, allegedly, interested in existence of stable Russia as a source of energy and as an ally in struggle against Islamic extremism. Along with this, they admit that the West has many influential groups hating Russia and hoping for its collapse in mid-term outlook.
"Pragmatists" believe that Russia is not waited either in EU or NATO therefore the CIS countries are its major partners.
"Realists" stand for development of political ties with Europe and economic ties with Asia, primarily, with China.
Nationalists and fundamentalists, who believe in "God's chosen" Russia, dream about unification of all former Soviet republics under the Russian flag.
Similar discussions on true and supposed partners and allies are held in Kazakhstan too. Of course, we do not raise here the question of sovereignty. Such meetings focus on search for joint measures for countering current threats and challenges in economic, political, military and other spheres.
To my mind, taking into consideration the situation in Central Asian region and around it, Kazakhstan should deepen strategic cooperation with Russia and, moreover, the relations between our countries should be raised to the allied one. It is also important to enhance Kazakh-Russian cooperation in regional organizations - CICA, EurAsEC, CSTO, SCO and in the UN and the OSCE.
Special attention should be given to development of joint actions with the SCO. Member country of the Organization - China - is rapidly gaining influence in Central Asia.
Having established the Customs Union and creating Common Economic Space, Kazakhstan and Russia should set to taking measures for improvement and strengthening integration cooperation.
