KAZAKHSTAN: MFA RESHUFFLES SENIOR DIPLOMATS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASTANA 002566 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/CEN, EUR/ERA, EUR/WE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR OFDP KZ SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN: MFA RESHUFFLES SENIOR DIPLOMATS REF: ASTANA 2457 ASTANA 00002566 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. (U) Sensitive but unclassified. Not for public Internet. MFA RESHUFFLE ¶2. (SBU) On December 29, Kairat Sarybay, until December 26 the Deputy Foreign Minister, was appointed senior foreign policy advisor to President Nazarbayev, succeeding Yerzhan Kazykhanov, who was named Kazakhstan's new Ambassador to Austria. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA),Kazakhstan will now have two diplomatic missions in Vienna: the Embassy to Austria, headed by Kazykhanov, which will also cover Kazakhstan's cooperation with international organizations based in Vienna; and the Permanent Mission to the OSCE, headed by Kairat Abdrakhmanov, who was previously Kazakhstan's Ambassador to Austria. KAZYKHANOV BIO NOTES ¶3. (SBU) Yerzhan Kazykhanov was born on August 21, 1964, in Almaty. He received an undergraduate degree in Asian Studies in 1987 from Leningrad State University. After graduation, he completed compulsory military service as a translator from 1987 to 1989. He subsequently graduated from the Diplomatic Academy of the Soviet Union and joined Kazakhstan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he served as Deputy Chief of State Protocol (1992-95),Counselor to the Permanent Mission of Kazakhstan to the United Nations in New York (1995-2000),Director of the Department of Multilateral Cooperation (2000-03),Permanent Representative to the United Nations and non-resident Ambassador to the Republic of Cuba (2003-07),Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (2007-08),and Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to the President (2008). Kazykhanov has the rank of Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary First Class and speaks fluent English and Arabic. Kazykhanov is the author of the book, "Cooperation of the Republic of Kazakhstan with the United Nations" (Almaty, 2002),as well as numerous articles on multilateral diplomacy and the United Nations. He is married with two children. NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE TO THE OSCE ¶4. (SBU) Kairat Abdrakhmanov, formerly in charge of relations with international organizations, will be Kazakhstan's new Permanent Representative to the OSCE. Shortly after he was named Ambassador to Austria, Abdrakhmanov was asked about the OSCE Chairmanship. In reply, Abdrakhmanov said, "This gives Kazakhstan an excellent opportunity to contribute to strengthening the potential and efficiency of the Organization. The leadership and the people of our country made real progress in building democracy and civil society. We are determined to be a genuine democratic country where the basic values and the standards reflected in the documents of the OSCE will be undoubtedly prevailing. Naturally, chairing the OSCE would further promote the development of our political system, which in fact corresponds to our own inner intentions aimed at the systemic reforms of social and political life in the direction of further democratization. For Kazakhstan, Chairmanship of the Organization has already become a powerful catalyst for reform, an additional confirmation of the rightly chosen path of further liberalization and openness. We think that the positive outcome of our bid might have a multiplicative effect for the complex modernization of our country and the region as a whole." NEW PRESIDENTIAL FOREIGN AFFAIRS ADVISOR ¶5. (SBU) The new Presidential Foreign Affairs advisor, the 42-year old Kairat Sarybay has had a meteoric career in the diplomatic service, much of it close to President Nazarbayev. After studying oriental languages in the Soviet Union and Kazakhstan, Sarybay entered the newly-formed Kazakhstan Foreign Ministry in 1992 as a second secretary in the Consular division, followed by an assignment in Ankara. He returned to Kazkahstan in 1996 as the President's Chief of Protocol and then Press Secretary. He was rewarded with the Ambassadorship to Turkey in 1999 and subsequently went on to Berlin as Ambassador. In 2007, Sarybay returned to Astana to replace Kazykhanov as the Deputy Foreign Minister for Europe and the Americas. Saribay's wife, Leila, is an artist who has a gallery in Astana. She is currently working on possible collaboration with several New York museums. Sarybay speaks fluent English, German and Turkish as well as native Kazakh and Russian. He is very ASTANA 00002566 002.2 OF 002 sophisticated and comfortable in his dealings with foreigners. ¶6. (SBU) COMMENT: Moving Kazykhanov to Vienna and Abdrakhmanov to the OSCE reflects the President's continued intense interest in the activities of former son-in-law Rakhat Aliyev, reportedly still in exile in Austria, as well as the government's intention to pay full-time attention to multilateral affairs. Abdrakhmanov, Kazykhanov, and Sarybay represent the first generation of Kazakhstani diplomats; they are fluent in Kazakh, Russian, and English and, despite their relative youth, experienced in dealing with the West. All three have served as Deputy Foreign Minister for Europe and the Americas in the last three years, and two of them have also worked in presidential protocol. Clearly they represent the MFA's "A" team. ¶7. (SBU) COMMENT CONTINUED: For some time the MFA has planned to open a new embassy in Vienna to deal exclusively with the OSCE. The MFA is increasingly recognizing the importance of other international agencies, for instance the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Kazakhstan remains interested in seeking a seat on the IAEA Board of Governors in 2010. Moreover Kazakhstan will be the chair of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in 2011. While we understand and support Kazakhstan's desire to play a leading role in international organizations, there is a risk that these moves will severely tax a thin bench of experienced diplomats. END COMMENT. HOAGLAND