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Cheney Runs Finger along Caspian Seabed
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in Kazakhstan yesterday. He refrained from harsh commentary on the state of Kazakh democracy. The main topic of his negotiations in Astana is energy, in particular a natural gas pipeline along the floor of the Caspian Sea bypassing Russia.During his meeting with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev, Cheney was generous with compliments. We are grateful to you for the work you did in Afghanistan and Iraq and for your cooperation in the global fight against terrorism. Kazakhstan has been a friend and an important strategic partner of the United States. All America has been impressed by the progress Kazakhstan has made in the last 15 years, Cheney said. Those words contrast sharply with the statements he made about Russia a day earlier in Vilnius. There, Cheney sharply accused Moscow of weakening democracy. No similar accusations were made by Cheney against Astana. Cheney plans to meet with leading Kazakh opposition members during his visit, including Galymzhan Zhakiyanov, leader of the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan Party, who was recently released after serving a four-year prison sentence. The Kazakh Interior Ministry forbade Zhakiyanov to leave his home in Almaty to meet with U.S. vice president in Astana yesterday, however. Cheney did not comment on the incident and stuck with the more important matter. It was clear that the key question in the negotiations was the possibility of building a pipeline along the Caspian Sea floor, which would make it possible to export hydrocarbons from Kazakhstan through Turkey to Europe, bypassing Russia. European Commission representative on energy Andris Piebalgs was also in Astana yesterday to lobby for Kazakhstan's inclusion in the already extant Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum natural gas pipeline. If that project, which the European Union is prepared to finance, is implemented, Russia will lose control of Caspian natural gas and Europe will have an alternative source of energy supplies. Another topic that may be included on the agenda of the negotiations is the inclusion of Kazakhstan in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline. That pipeline began service last year and is a favorite of the U.S. administration, after Washington lobbied for its creation for ten years. Nazarbaev was present the ceremonial launching of the pipeline and stated at that time that Kazakhstan was ready to connect to it. Cheney's negotiations in Astana are a logical continuation of Washington's new policy toward Russia, as Cheney formulated it the day before. In Vilnius, he stated that the region of the Baltic and Black Seas are the arena of the standoff between Russia and the West, and now the U.S. vice president has extended that line to the Caspian Sea. Cheney expressed indignation in Vilnius at Russia's energy blackmail and he continued his campaign against it in Astana. Cheney said after meeting with Nazarbaev that the U.S. does not consider Russia its enemy, but as a regional ally. Nonetheless, it is concerned about a certain resistance by Russia to democratic processes. He noted that his opinion coincided with that of the leaders of the countries represented at the Vilnius summit. Cheney continued that Russia is seen as using its control over energy resources as a political tool to pressure the countries whose leader assembled in Vilnius this week. Nazarbaev, who is eager to preserve good relations with both Moscow and Washington, commented in response that there is no confrontation between Moscow and Washington, rather a friendly exchange of ideas. Posted by: ryuge 2006-05-07 |
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