KAZAKHSTAN AND GLOBAL SECURITY BRIDGING EAST AND WEST

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1 KAZAKHSTAN AND GLOBAL SECURITY BRIDGING EAST AND WEST September 2014

2 Table of Contents Introduction - The Changing Concept of Global Security p. 3 Bridging East and West: CICA and the OSCE p. 4 Commitment to the Stabilization and Reconstruction of Afghanistan and Iraq p. 5 UN Peacekeeping Operations, Drug Control, and Other Peace-Building Engagements p. 6 Cooperation with Neighbours: SCO and CSTO p. 6 The Vision of a World Free of Nuclear Weapons p. 7 Balancing Friends: Kazakhstan s Conception of Balance of Power p. 8 Matching Words with Deeds p. 9 About Kazakhstan s UNSC Campaign p. 10 2

3 Kazakhstan and Global Security Bridging East and West "Kazakhstan [has] earned respect from around the world for its commitment to strengthening global security and respect for international norms... [The] country is already a leader in this region, and it has set ambitious goals and is making impressive efforts to demonstrate leadership on the global stage." - Nisha Desai Biswal, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, April 1 st 2014 Introduction - The Changing Concept of Global Security In the early 2000s, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan convened a High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges, and Change in the global security system. The report, published in 2004, called for a new and broader understanding of global security, extending to poverty, environmental degradation, war and violence within states, the spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, organised crime, and other ills. While many of these could only successfully be addressed collectively, the frontline in today s combat, the UN Secretary General concluded, must be manned by capable and responsible States. 1 Kazakhstan is attuned to these transformations in the global security environment and the responsibilities of the country in it. President Nursultan Nazarbayev s Kazakhstan 2050 Strategy, formulated in his annual state of the nation address in December 2012, gives due emphasis to foreign policy modernisation. Among the priorities listed in his modernising ambition are strengthening regional security by eradicating the prerequisites of conflict situations; actively developing economic and trade diplomacy; intensifying international cooperation in cultural, humanitarian, scientific and education fields; and supporting progressive international initiatives and making a contribution to global security. Furthermore, the giant arc of instability, running from Northern Africa and the Middle East to North-East Asia, necessitates a strengthening of global regional security mechanisms (e.g. the UN, OSCE, NATO, CSTO, SCO, and CICA), a proactive Kazakh role in each of these organisations, and the recognition that many security threats today are not only trans-national, but trans-regional in nature. 2 What follows is a summary of Kazakhstan s commitment to promoting global security, which is not new but dates back to independence in 1991 and has evolved with the global security environment ever since. 1 UN Millennium Project, 2 Address by the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, N.Nazarbayev, Strategy Kazakhstan- 2050: new political course of the established state, December

4 Bridging East and West: CICA and the OSCE Kazakhstan s determination to facilitate confidence building in Asia and Europe, and to bridge the East and West in a much larger global effort, spanning more than two decades. The Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, CICA, proposed by Kazakh President Nazarbayev at the 47 th Session of the United Nations General Assembly on October 5 th 1992, came in response to the need of an Asian analogue of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). Fast-forward 22 years and CICA is today a fully-fledged international organisation headquartered in the Kazakh city of Almaty, assembling 26 states whose citizens comprise no less than half the world s population. Like its European counterpart, CICA aims to enhance cooperation between members and promote peace, security and stability, but with a focus on Asia. It is a confidence-building mechanism and has structured its work accordingly. Joint responses to new challenges and threats i.e. those with an economic, environmental, or human dimension are seen as stepping stones to thornier military-political questions, allowing both for a response to new security threats while at the same time synergistically addressing military or political conflicts in the CICA area. 3 Given its long history in establishing confidence-building measures on the Asian continent, Kazakhstan s chairmanship of the OSCE in 2010 opened an opportunity to bridge Asian and European security structures and, on the basis of lessons learned, give input to an organisation which CICA initially was inspired by. Apart from consistent work on all three baskets of the OSCE, one of Kazakhstan s major contributions during its Chairmanship was that the organisation firmly embraced the concept of an indivisible European and Eurasian security. This recognition of indivisibility is evident in several of the issue areas on which Kazakhstan s chairmanship focused: to promote the negotiation processes over settlement of the frozen conflicts in the South Caucasus and reinvigoration of the OSCE Minsk group, further OSCE participation in resolving the Afghan conflict, and the idea of adopting in OSCE format the Water and Rights Programme as an international legal framework, drawing on the experiences of Central Asia s Aral Sea disaster. Through such initiatives, Kazakhstan s chairmanship also more firmly embedded environmental questions and other new security threats on the OSCE s agenda. 4 The country s biggest contribution to the OSCE, though, came in the convening of the summit of the organization, held after a hiatus of 11 years in Astana in December It gave a new breath to the OSCE and resulted in the adoption of the landmark Astana Declaration 5. Next to chairing the OSCE, Kazakhstan chaired the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in , the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in , and in 2012 it became the first Central Asian state to be elected to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). It is currently fulfilling its responsibilities in the body until In 2013 the British Prime Minster, David Cameron, visited 3 Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asiawww.s-cica.org 4 Nursultan Nazarbayev, The OSCE and Global Security, Press Release

5 Kazakhstan and highlighted the important role it has played in Afghanistan and as a regional ally, resulting in the signing of a bilateral Strategic Partnership. 6 Kazakhstan s commitment to the stabilisation and reconstruction of Afghanistan and the importance of CICA, NATO, OSCE, OIC, and CSTO in working for the same objective embodies what Kazakhstan has strenuously worked for since independence. That is, enhanced interaction on an East-West axis in various and all manifestations including between NATO on the one hand and CSTO on the other, and on a North-South axis between OSCE, OIC, and CICA. Kazakhstan is uniquely placed to promote such trans-regional cooperation given its active role in all of these organisations. 7 Commitment to the Stabilization and Reconstruction of Afghanistan and Iraq Support towards the stabilisation effort in Afghanistan is a key foreign policy priority of Kazakhstan. In 2001, Kazakhstan made flight routes and landing fields available to UN-sanctioned Western-led military operations, it has participated in the Northern Distribution Network since 2009, and in 2013 Kazakhstan granted the British military a further northern airspace route for transportation 8. Added to this logistical support should be substantial amounts of humanitarian aid and other related development assistance. For example, in the Governmental Action Plan on Assistance channelled financial aid to Afghanistan that included $3m towards agriculture, school and hospital construction and road building. Moreover, the Government of Kazakhstan has allocated $50m to the Agreement on Cooperation in Education with the Afghan Government, which provided university education for 1,000 Afghan citizens beginning from 2010 and extending into 2019 in fields including healthcare, agriculture, policing and border control, engineering, and teaching 9. Kazakhstan has also sought to expand trade with Afghanistan by organizing trade delegations and business fairs, the most recent of which concluded deals worth $7 million 10. A second major concern is a stable Iraq. During , Kazakhstan has deployed on a rotating basis a platoon out of its peacekeeping battalion, KAZBAT, to Iraq to assist with bomb disposal, the construction of fresh water facilities, and the provision of medical treatment. The Kazakh military engineers cleared and eliminated more than 4.5 million pieces of explosives and other ordnance in Iraq. In December 2006, the battalion was formally expanded to brigade size and renamed KAZBRIG 11, which has also participated in Steppe Eagle, an ongoing military exercise project between the USA, UK and Kazakhstan. A trilateral project, its purpose is to bring Kazakh forces training to UN standards, which will enable 6 UK Government 7 Nursultan Nazarbayev, The OSCE and Global Security, Press Release 8 UK Government 9 Kazakhstan Government 10 US Aidhttp:// 11 CACI Analysthttp:// 5

6 Kazakhstan to send peacekeeping troops to UN operations 12. The training is linked to the country s NATO Partnership for Peace (PfP) goals, and in 2008 a NATO assessment team formally declared that KAZBRIG had achieved a level of NATO interoperability. To date, KAZBRIG is the only peacekeeping force in the region to attain such a level of interoperability with the Alliance 13. Further, in 2008 a Partnership for Peace (KAZCENT) training centre was established in Kazakhstan with support from a range of international partners including the UK, the USA and Germany. Being the first of its kind in Central Asia, the purpose of the centre is to train soldiers of the Armed Forces of Kazakhstan, NATO countries and its partners to participate in peacekeeping operations. UN Peacekeeping Operations, Drug Control, and Other Peace-Building Engagements Groundwork laid in such international cooperation led Kazakhstan s Parliament, on 20 th December 2013, to pass a bill approving the dispatch of 20 military servicemen into peacekeeping operations in Cote d'ivoire, Haiti, Liberia and Western Sahara (5 military observers will go to each country). This is the first UN mission in which Kazakhstan will participate with Observer status, the primary task of which will be to monitor developments in these areas and report to the UN. Kazakhstan has been increasingly working with the UN Security Council, too. As part of its commitment to implementing UN resolutions, Kazakhstan collaborates closely with the 1540 Disarmament and Anti-Terrorism Committees of the Security Council, and joined the multilateral campaign against terrorism, transnational crime, and the illegal trafficking of drugs, arms and human beings. Kazakhstan was twice elected a member of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs ( and ). As a party to UN conventions, Kazakhstan actively cooperates with the International Committee of the UN Office for Drug Control, and in 2006, together with the other Central Asian republics, Russia, and Azerbaijan, established the Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination Centre (CARICC) in Almaty to combat drug trafficking. In 2013, Kazakhstan took the lead in facilitating talks between Iran and Western governments in the E3+3 talks, including two meetings hosted in Almaty in February and April This is in addition to Kazakhstan s long-standing engagement, since 1991, to finding a solution to the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Cooperation with Neighbours: SCO and CSTO Stable and peaceful relations with neighbours is a prerequisite for Kazakhstan s security policy. Kazakhstan has signed border agreements with China and Russia, established Strategic Partnerships with both countries, Kyrgyzstan, and most recently with Uzbekistan. A Treaty of Eternal Friendship was signed with Kyrgyzstan 12 UK Government press release (2013) 13 The Jamestown Foundation, Eurasian Daily Monitor (2012) b663f1c38b9f1a49af f#.u2ijfshwzms 6

7 and Uzbekistan in 2007 and Kazakhstan has also signed a range of agreements with Azerbaijan, among other strategic accords. By doing so, it has established territorial stability that has freed much of its military and strategic resources for ambitious, multilateral international programmes. Several of them involve the above-mentioned countries. Kazakhstan is a founding member of the Shanghai Five in 1996, which subsequently evolved into the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in 2001, comprising four out of five Central Asian states as well as China and Russia. While initially focused on border demarcation, the organisation has since embraced a wider security agenda including soft security threats and peacekeeping 14. Kazakhstan is also a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a regional organisation that unites Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan 15. The CSTO aims to ensure national security, defend sovereignty and the territorial integrity of its member states, address matters related to military organisation, oversee a united system of air defence, and manage joint border protection with non-member states. Its remit also includes countering terrorism, extremism, the smuggling of drugs and weapons, and organised crime. For Kazakhstan, Russia also remains an important military partner, and the two nations share air defence systems and participate in joint military exercises 16. These regional alliances serve to ensure that the Central Asian republics and their neighbours work alongside one another to promote regional stability, the foundation of prosperity. The Vision of a World Free of Nuclear Weapons Nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament belong to the core of Kazakhstan s security policy, and the republic has led by example. Not only did Kazakhstan voluntarily renounce the world s fourth largest nuclear arsenal (including 1,040 nuclear warheads and more than 100 intercontinental ballistic missiles) upon independence and closed the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, but Kazakhstan has worked with its neighbours to create a Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (CANWFZ) and promoted the signing of a Universal Declaration on Achieving a Nuclear Weapons Free World under the aegis of the United Nations. 17 Added to this should be Kazakhstan s provision of a framework for negotiations on Iran s nuclear programme and Kazakhstan s initiation of UN Resolution 64/35, passed by the UN General Assembly unanimously, proclaiming August 29 as the International Day against Nuclear Tests. 18 The number of international conferences on non-proliferation that Kazakhstan has 14 Kazakhstan Government 15 Kazakhstan Government 16 Kazakhstan Ministry of Defence 17 Erlan Idrissov, A New Step Forward to Greater and Regional Security, Astana Times, 13 May 2014, 18 Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the USA 7

8 sponsored are too numerous to be cited in detail. Suffice it to say, the very idea of a Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in received a major boost in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on 28 February, 1997, when Central Asian heads of state signed the Almaty Declaration. In August 2012, Kazakhstan organized the international conference From the Nuclear Test Ban to a Nuclear Weapons-Free World. It was at this conference that President Nazarbayev launched a new initiative The ATOM Project seeking to galvanise global public opinion about the need to completely ban all nuclear weapons testing 19. The same year President Obama met with President Nazarbayev in Seoul, at which time the two Presidents discussed a host of international security issues including nuclear security and countering terrorism 20. They met again in March 2014 at the Third Summit on Nuclear Security in The Hague. On th March 2014, Kazakhstan hosted a workshop in Astana, attended by officials from over 25 countries and international organisations, which aimed to evaluate a decade-old Security Council resolution aimed at curbing weapons of mass destruction, promote global and regional disarmament, and advance nonproliferation 21. A recurring theme of Kazakhstan s arguments against nuclear arms proliferation has been the threat of nuclear terrorism 22, and it is negotiating with the IAEA to host the international low enriched uranium bank. The LEU bank would be run with the backing of the IAEA and international community, working to create an additional mechanism of ensuring the stability of global nuclear fuel cycle and, indirectly, of strengthening the nuclear non-proliferation regime. By sharing its experience of dealing with problematic nuclear material as a state in transition, Kazakhstan is able to provide valuable insight for any international institution, including the UN Security Council. Thus, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remarked in 2012: Certainly when it comes to nonproliferation, there are few countries that can match Kazakhstan s experience and credibility. 23 Balancing Friends: Kazakhstan s Conception of Balance of Power Kazakhstan s international orientation is propelling it to a more central position on the global stage. Kazakhstan s strategy of building cooperative relations helps to create a balance between Russia and China both of whom border with Kazakhstan and Western powers with whom it has fostered valuable relationships. If not for any other reason, the Kazakh economy benefits from having a wide marketplace for its industrial and agricultural exports in these countries. Kazakhstan s establishment of strategic partnerships with Russia, China, the United States and several major European powers alike is, in many ways, unique and enables it to play the role of a universal partner on the international stage The White House 21 UN 22 Kazakhstan Government 23 USA State Department, Remarks with Foreign Minister Yerlan Idrisov After Their Meeting, 3 October

9 As such, Kazakhstan s multi-vector foreign policy has recast the old realist principle of balance of power, often defined in terms of enemies and parity, to one of balancing friends. This policy comes naturally to the Kazakhs given the country s diverse population and mosaic-like social composition, home to more than 130 different ethnic groups ranging from Germans to Koreans. Peaceful co-existence between Kazakhstan s communities and ethnicities, a keystone of domestic policy, has informed a foreign policy based on partnerships in all directions, East-West and North-South, in order to foster harmonious relationships externally as well. Matching Words with Deeds Global security encompasses more than solely military or territorial security, which is why Kazakhstan since independence has embraced a broad security concept and tailored its foreign policy accordingly. Dialogue and mediation on soft and hard security threats, the bridging of East and West, stabilisation of conflict zones, peacekeeping, multilateral cooperation, investments in education, drug control, environmental degradation, friendly relations with other states, and nuclear nonproliferation among others all occupy prominent places in Kazakhstan s security policy. This is not surprising since the traditional distinction between soft and hard security never has been neat in Kazakhstan. Environmental concerns, for example, were at the core of the independence movement in the Soviet era, and President Nazarbayev signed a decree shutting down the Semipalatinsk nuclear site four months prior to the Declaration of Independence in That Kazakhstan voluntarily got rid of its nuclear weapons and maintains friendly relations with all poles on the international stage attests to the fact that the country s leadership matches words with deeds. They are essential building blocks in constructing a peaceful world order, and the vision is that this experience can be useful for others in the common quest for global security. 9

10 ABOUT Kazakhstan s Bid to Secure a Non-Permanent Seat on the United Nations Security Council for 2017/18 In September 2013, Kazakhstan announced its bid to secure a seat as a nonpermanent member of the United Nations Security Council in the years 2017/18. As a regional leader and global partner in matters of energy security, and a valuable contributor to international peacekeeping missions, Kazakhstan wishes to bring its unique experience and expertise to bear on some of the pressing challenges currently facing the UNSC. Its bid is based on four central pillars: food security, water security, energy security and nuclear security. KazakhstanUNSC.com, its publications, and its occasional newsletters and bulletins aim to set out, in clear and concise terms, the main policy priorities of Kazakhstan s UNSC bid. The multilingual website also supplies details of political, economic and social developments inside Kazakhstan and about its international foreign policy initiatives. Kazakhstan has the experience, political will and resources to make a valuable contribution to the global challenges faced by the UNSC. It is fully engaged in its commitment to assume such responsibilities on the Security Council. Home to over 130 different ethnic groups, Kazakhstan is nothing less than a microcosm of the United Nations. In the spirit of a committed and principled partner in the family of nations, the Republic of Kazakhstan has announced its bid to become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in the years 2017/18. Subscribe here for all the latest news, publications and developments relating to the bid. 10