EU
- Central Asia meeting of ministers is scheduled to
take place in Astana, Kazakhstan, later today. Three
ministers will represent Europe: Foreign Minister of
Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier (Germany chairs the
EU at this point), EU Representative to Central Asia
Pierre Morel, and EU Commissar for Foreign Contacts
and Policy of Neighborliness Benita Ferrero-Waldner.
Portuguese Ambassador to Russia Manuel Kurtu is to be
present too (Lisbon will replace Berlin as the US
chairman in the second half of the year). The
Europeans will be meeting with foreign ministers of
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
Turkmenistan will be represented by a deputy foreign
minister.
The EU is out to work out a strategy of dealing with
Central Asia. The ambitious idea belongs to German
diplomacy. Making preparations for the EU
chairmanship last autumn, Steinmeier pulled off
something unprecedented for Western diplomats and
visited all five capitals of the region. As a matter
of fact, his visiting schedule made Steinmeier the
last foreign official to meet with the Turkmenbashi
who passed away in December 2006. Liberalization of
regime in Turkmenistan that followed Niyazov's demise
may turn out to be a major milestone in the relations
between the European Union and Central Asia.
Should Turkmenistan prove itself ready for a dialogue
with Europe, the role of the "bad boy" in the region
will shift to Uzbekistan. This is the country the
European Union slapped sanctions on in the wake of
the outrage in Andijan in May 2005. Certain recent
developments allowed for the hope that the sanctions
would be lifted or at least eased soon but... The
Uzbek authorities pressed criminal charges (activity
without license and concealment of income) against
Natalia Bushuyeva, Die Deutsche Welle correspondent.
Michael Laubsch, the head of the Eurasian Transit
Group and a prominent German expert, told Vremya
Novostei that this episode reminded him of the
tragedy of RL correspondent Ogulsapar Muradova who
had died in prison in September 2006, several weeks
after the arrest.
Muradova's death upset the European Union
sufficiently to ruin the signing of a trade accord
with Turkmenistan then. Laubsch claims that what
information he got from the EU headquarters in
Brussels and Foreign Ministry of Germany indicates
that "the situation with the Die Deutsche Welle
correspondent may have a counterproductive effect on
the talks in Astana." "The European countries that
were fairly undemanding with regard to the Central
Asian regime are running out of patience," the German
expert said. "The impression they are finally getting
is that the promise of the reforms is but a trick."
Nothing in the meantime is going to interfere with
the central political event in Astana today, namely
the audience with President Nursultan Nazarbayev. EU
visitors will tell the host what hopes they pin on
Kazakhstan as the guarantor of European energy
preparedness. Nazarbayev will inform his guests of
the plans of the reforms.
Arkadi Dubnov, Vremja Novostei, p. 5