KAZAKHSTAN: AMBASSADOR'S INITIAL CALLS ON

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ASTANA 002042

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCA/CEN, EUR/RUS, EUR/CARC, EAP

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/16/2018
TAGS: PREL GG RS CH KZ
SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN: AMBASSADOR'S INITIAL CALLS ON
RUSSIAN AND CHINESE AMBASSADORS

Classified By: Ambassador Richard E. Hoagland, 1.4 (B),(D)


1. (C) SUMMARY: Ambassador called on Chinese Ambassador
Cheng Guoping on October 14 and joined Russian Ambassador
Mikhail Nikolayevich Bocharnikov for lunch at his Embassy on
October 15. Although both were rather formal on first
meeting, Ambassador Cheng seemed the somewhat less guarded.
Both complained their Foreign Ministries experience
difficulties attracting "quality diplomats" to Astana. END
SUMMARY.

CHINA: SECURITY, ENERGY, RUSSIA/GEORGIA


2. (C) Ambassador Cheng said in Beijing,s view, Kazakhstan
is the third most important country in China,s security
interests, after Russia, first, and India, second. He
emphasized Kazakhstan,s and China,s long common border, and
alluded to Beijing,s security concerns about separatists in
Xianjian Province. He characterized the Kazakhstani-Chinese
mil-mil relationship as "positive with the potential to
grow," and the special services relationship as "correct,
with no special problems." As a second priority after
security, Cheng listed economic relations and specifically
energy -- Kazakhstan,s oil and natural gas.


3. (C) With a highly Russo-centric view, Ambassador Cheng
recapped the Georgia events in August: "(Georgian President
Mikhail) Saakashvili invaded Tskhinvali and killed
thousands." The Ambassador responded he is aware of that
interpretation and recognized that Russia had the right to
protect its "peace keepers," if they were under imminent
threat. He emphasized the United States had repeatedly
counseled restraint by Georgia in response to Russian
provocation. He suggested that China might want to consider
a more nuanced view because the Russian military action
effectively changed the borders in the post-Soviet space by
force and could well have unleashed the "evil of
separatism/splitism" about which China is deeply concerned.
Ambassador Cheng did not respond directly, but seemed to take
the point.


4. (C) Ambassador Cheng asked if Secretary Rice, during her
October 5 visit to Astana, had asked Kazakhstan for special
support against Russia. The Ambassador gave Cheng an
extensive read-out of the Secretary,s meetings and said her
statement during her joint media opportunity with Foreign
Minister Tazhin clearly stated U.S. policy: the United
States is not competing for the affections of countries in
the region. The Ambassador elaborated long-standing U.S.
policy that the United States supports the independence and
sovereignty of the Central Asian states and respects their
right to choose their own partners; we do not recognize
anyone,s special or privileged sphere of influence in the
region.


5. (C) Ambassador Cheng, who had just arrived and presented
his credentials on October 8 along with the Ambassador and
five others, said he had been sent to Astana specifically to
get China,s new chancery and staff apartment housing built
-- across the street from the U.S. Embassy, although he
confided there are still "technical problems" about the legal
right to the land. Nearly the first words out of his mouth
were apologies for his Embassy's temporary quarters in a
run-of-the-mill office building. He bemoaned the difficulty
of attracting good Chinese diplomats to Astana because of his
Embassy,s current working and living conditions.


6. (C) COMMENT: Ambassador Cheng went out of his way
several times to emphasize his desire to maintain close
dialog with the Ambassador. He speaks rudimentary, highly
accented Russian and no English. He preferred to conduct the
meeting with a Chinese Embassy staff member translating
Mandarin-English. He had two other note-takers present who
clearly understood English. END COMMENT.

ASTANA 00002042 002 OF 002



RUSSIA: CORRECT BUT NOT SUBSTANTIVE


7. (C) In response to the Ambassador,s request for an early
courtesy call, Russian Ambassador Mikhail Nikolayevich
Bocharnikov invited him to a one-on-one lunch at the Russian
Embassy on October 15. When the Ambassador thanked him for
this special courtesy, Bocharnikov responded that he wanted
to reciprocate former U.S. Ambassador Ordway,s kindness of
inviting him soon after his arrival to Astana in 2006 to a
private lunch at the U.S. Embassy Residence. Despite
Bocharnikov,s tenure as the Moscow-based Russian Special
Ambassador for Abkhazia (2003-2006),he deflected all
substantive questions on all issues. The Ambassador briefed
him on Secretary Rice,s October 5 visit to Astana and
discussed the U.S. presidential election.


8. (C) Russia opened its new Embassy in Astana in 2004. The
relatively small compound closer to the old city center than
to the new Kazakhstani government core, includes the
chancery, a large recreation center -- sports courts,
billiard hall, 20-meter swimming pool, and very large sauna
facilities -- and an eight-story apartment building for
Embassy diplomats and their families. Bocharnikov, like his
Chinese colleague, said his Foreign Ministry has a hard time
attracting "quality diplomats" to Astana. Having begun his
diplomatic career in 1971, he commented that he is old-school
Soviet Union, "where people followed orders," and can,t get
fully used to the idea that younger Russian diplomats "now
seem to think they have choices."


9. (C) In response to the Ambassador,s probing that he has
heard rumors Russia has acquired the land across the side
street from the U.S. Embassy for a new Russian Embassy
complex, Bocharnikov admitted Russia has the land "in
principle," but will likely use it in the nearer term to
build more Russian Embassy housing and "other facilities."


10. (C) COMMENT: It is encouraging that Ambassador
Bocharnikov took the initiative to develop a one-on-one
relationship with the Ambassador, who praised to Bocharnikov
former Russian Ambassador to Tajikistan and current Russian
Foreign Ministry Director for Central Asia Maksim Peshkov,s
candor and collegiality. Compared to Peshkov,s successor in
Dushanbe, the snide nationalist Abdulatipov, and the
relatively reclusive, bloated, and mono-syllabic Ambassador
Blatov in Ashgabat, Bocharnikov is a small breath of fresh
air, even if quite clearly old-school.


11. (C) COMMENT CONTINUED: The lunch took place in the
Russian chancery in what Ambassador Bocharnikov said was
designed to be the Ambassador,s apartment but is now used,
minimally furnished, mainly as temporary quarters for
high-level visiting Russian officials. Bocharnikov currently
lives in a relatively small villa in "dip-gorodok," a foreign
diplomatic gated community surrounding the Presidential
Administration,s Rixos Hotel. Bocharnikov confided that his
predecessor had refused to live on the Russian compound, and
he has done the same, but is dissatisfied because he,d
prefer a "proper residence commensurate with Russia,s status
in Kazakhstan." Bocharnikov, while giving the Ambassador a
tour of the public spaces for the Russian chancery, subtly
criticized his predecessor for having bought generic art --
"Motel 6 landscapes" -- to decorate the public rooms:
"Hsimply went to an artist,s studio and bought the whole
lot." END COMMENT.
HOAGLAND