UZBEKISTAN GRANTS STCU AN EXTENSION, BUT PROBLEMS PERSIST

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TASHKENT 000151 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SBU DELIBERATIVE PROCESS DEPT FOR SCA/CEN AND ISN/CTR AMEMBASSY ASTANA PASS TO USOFFICE ALMATY AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PASS TO AMCONSUL HYDERABAD AMEMBASSY HELSINKI PASS TO AMCONSUL ST PETERSBURG AMEMBASSY MOSCOW PASS TO AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK AMEMBASSY MOSCOW PASS TO AMCONSUL YEKATERINBURG E.O. 12958: DECL: 2019-02-09 TAGS: PREL KNNP UZ SUBJECT: UZBEKISTAN GRANTS STCU AN EXTENSION, BUT PROBLEMS PERSIST REF: a) 06 TASHKENT 610, b) 06 TASHKENT 950, c) 06 TASHKENT 2343 d) 07 TASHKENT 514 CLASSIFIED BY: Steven Prohaska, Second Secretary, P/E Office; REASON: 1.4(B),(D) ¶1. (C) The Science and Technology Center in Ukraine (STCU) continues to face accreditation problems in Uzbekistan, though the Government of Uzbekistan (GOU) has given STCU until the end of 2009 to complete active projects. (Note: The STCU, which works to combat proliferation by diverting the efforts of former weapons scientists in the CIS toward peaceful scientific research projects, has been working in Uzbekistan since 1998. STCU has supported over 1,000 Uzbek scientists working on over 105 projects related to agriculture, cotton production, biomedical technologies, nuclear safety, energy technologies, and other fields. End note.) The STCU's last remaining representative in Uzbekistan, Regina Sattarova, told Poloff on January 16 that STCU's main priorities are nonproliferation and building the sustainability of scientific institutes. The GOU subsidizes these institutes, but this alone is not enough to keep them running and STCU also provides the institutes with modern equipment. STCU works with Uzbekistan's Academy of Sciences and the Center for Science and Technology Development under the Cabinet of Ministers. ¶2. (C) Sattarova complained that while the scientific community in Uzbekistan is very interested in cooperation with STCU, the government is not. STCU has had problems with receiving accreditation from Uzbekistan since 2006. Despite the center's repeated requests for this, the Government of Uzbekistan has remained silent, and STCU staff have experienced visa problems. Sattarova said that some in Uzbekistan's scientific community have asked whether the Department of State could send a letter on behalf of STCU requesting that the GOU grant it accreditation. She was not sure whether the time is right for this yet, however. Ongoing Projects -------------- ¶3. (SBU) STCU's nine active projects in Uzbekistan have received roughly 2.8 million USD in funding from the United States, European Union, and United Kingdom, and are as follows: - "Creation of Modern Manufacturing Technologies and Certification Methods for Radioisotope Production" is a joint project involving Uzbekistan's Institute of Nuclear Physics (INP) in Tashkent and Ukraine's Institute for Nuclear Research in Kyiv. - "Spectroscopic Information and Bound State Potential of Mirror Nuclei and Rates of Astrophysical Reactions" involves Uzbekistan's INP in Tashkent. - "Development of Methods and Equipment for Increasing Cyclotron Complex Power and Efficiency" involves Uzbekistan's Scientific Technological Enterprise "Tezlatgich" in Tashkent. - "Experimental Evaluation of Efficacy of Bacteriophage Treatment of Bacterial Blight in Cotton and Rice" is a joint project involving Uzbekistan's Institute of Genetics and Plant Experimental Biology, the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, and the Institute of Microbiology, and Georgia's Institute of Bacteriophage, Microbiology, and Virology. - "Bioremediation of Soils Contaminated with Petroleum and Petroleum Products" is a joint project involving Uzbekistan's Institute of Microbiology and the Institute of Petroleum and Gas Deposits Prospecting Research and Ukraine's Institute for Physical-Organic Chemistry and Coal Chemistry. - "Investigation of Soy-Bean Proteins in Treatment of Malignant Neoplasm" involves Uzbekistan's Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry. - "Molecular Mapping of Fiber Yield and Quality Genes Using Uzbek Cotton Germplasm Resources" is a joint project involving Uzbekistan's Institute of Genetics and Plant Experimental Biology and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. - "Characterization and Molecular Mapping of Phytochromes and Flowering Genes in Cotton" is a joint project involving Uzbekistan's Institute of Genetics and Plant Experimental Biology and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. - "Medical Isotope Development at the Institute of Nuclear Physics" is a joint project involving Uzbekistan's Institute of Nuclear Physics and the Department of Energy. TASHKENT 00000151 002 OF 002 Comment: -------------- ¶4. (C) STCU accreditation, if granted, would certainly improve the center's ability to actively operate in the country and create opportunities for additional projects. While we can send a request that the Government of Uzbekistan consider renewing its accreditation, the center's problems in recent years appear to have stemmed from lingering GOU distrust of non-governmental organizations operating outside of its control. It remains unclear whether the GOU continues to perceive some kind of threat from any additional STCU projects, but it is at least somewhat encouraging that the GOU decided to extend its deadline for the completion of active STCU projects from the end of 2008 until the end of 2009. NORLAND To view the entire SMART message, go to URL http://repository.state.sgov.gov/_layouts/OSS SearchResults.aspx?k=messageid:2fb3de46-1067- 4540-b463-6f6fb8a97ebc