KAZAKHSTAN'S PRESIDENT COMMENTS ON LOGISTICS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASTANA 002190 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/CEN, EUR/RPM, EEB PLEASE PASS TO USTR E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL ECON EPET MARR SENV OSCE EU CH RS KZ SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN'S PRESIDENT COMMENTS ON LOGISTICS CENTER FOR AFGHANISTAN, THE OSCE, OTHER KEY ISSUES ASTANA 00002190 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. (U) Sensitive but Unclassified. Not for public Internet. ¶2. (SBU) President Nursultan Nazarbayev gave his annual summing up to the diplomatic corps on December 22. Since he broke no new ground on any issue, we are reporting only excerpts from his presentation about issues of special interest to Washington readers. -- AFGHANISTAN: Kazakhstan fully supports U.S. and its NATO partners' efforts to bring stability and development to Afghanistan because it is in Kazakhstan's national interest to do so. In addition to Kazakhstan's already announced $50 million program to provide academic and technical education over five years for 1,000 Afghans, Kazakhstan reiterated its offer to provide a logistics center to support U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan. (COMMENT: We believe this is the first time Nazarbayev has made this offer public. END COMMENT.) -- OSCE: Kazakhstan has prepared for its 2010 chairmanship with utmost seriousness, and will balance all three OSCE dimensions. For the security dimension, Kazakhstan will promote the Corfu Process -- Russia's desire for a new European Security Treaty is only one of many proposals. Likewise on security, Kazakhstan will emphasize counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics, and border security, especially in Afghanistan. For the economics and environmental dimension, Kazakhstan will give priority to transit and transportation and the Aral Sea, as well as initiate a dialogue on energy security. For the human dimension, Kazakhstan will uphold the OSCE's traditional commitments and will pay special attention to religious tolerance and ethnic non-discrimination. -- MAJOR PARTNERS: Kazakhstan attaches special importance to China's soft loans of $13 billion during the economically-difficult 2009. The loans will be used solely for development. Kazakhstan also considers its relationship with the European Union a priority and is certain that its "Path to Europe" policy will yield concrete results. (COMMENT: Nazarbayev had very little to say about Russia, except in the context of the Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan Customs Union. His comments about the United States were in the context of Afghanistan and energy cooperation. END COMMENT.) -- CUSTOMS UNION: The Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan Customs Union is an historic achievement that will not preclude WTO membership in the future. Other CIS countries will be welcome to join the customs union eventually, but will need to undertake the long procedure to harmonize their laws and regulations with the customs union. -- ENERGY: Kazakhstan will continue its energy cooperation with the United States and Russia, while it seeks to establish new routes for the export of its hydrocarbon resources, especially to China and elsewhere. Because of the surge in oil production expected for 2014, Kazakhstan is continuing seriously to pursue the Kazakhstan Caspian Transportation System and other routes to Europe. -- CLIMATE CHANGE: Kazakhstan fully supports the Copenhagen conclusions and will work to modernize its technologies and to reduce emissions. DOYEN ASKS FOR DIPLOMATIC CLUB BUILDING ¶3. (SBU) The doyen of the diplomatic corps, Azerbaijan's Ambassador Latif Dandilov, gave the official response, noting ASTANA 00002190 002.2 OF 002 that all but seven of the bilateral and multilateral diplomatic missions accredited to Kazakhstan have now moved from Almaty to Astana. Because of the size of the diplomatic community -- over 50 missions -- he asked President Nazarbayev to donate a building in Astana for a Diplomatic Club. PROTOCOL PRECEDENCE ¶4. (SBU) Presidential protocol reserved the front row of the middle section of the audience for, from President Nazarbayev's right to left, the ambassadors from Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, Azerbaijan (the doyen),Russia, and the United States. NAZARBAYEV LOOKED HALE AND HEARTY ¶5. (SBU) Although some continue occasionally to speculate about Nazarbayev's physical health and mental acuity, he strode firmly to the platform and looked perfectly fine. He seemed a bit bored with his prepared remarks, but once he finished them and began his extemporaneous comments, he became much more animated, for example, joking that the seven "hold out missions" in Almaty should move to Astana soonest. "It's much more healthy here in Astana than in Almaty -- with our temperature today of (-23 F),there can't possibly be one germ or microbe left alive in this city!" Following the official convocation, Nazarbayev spent 45 minutes in the receiving line at the not-extravagant buffet, and had personal words for each ambassador and international representative. He told the Ambassador he was especially grateful for the tone of the recent letter from Secretary Clinton, and he asked the Ambassador to extend his personal invitation to her to visit Kazakhstan at her earliest convenience. HOAGLAND