Kazakhstan, Astana, Dec. 24 / Trend D. Mukhtar /
Situation in the Central Asian region contributes to militarization and growth of military expenditures, the Secretary of the People's Democratic Party "Nur Otan", political scientist Yerlan Karin told reporters on Monday.
"Increasing threat of terrorism in the world as well as in Central Asian region is indirectly contributing to militarization. Overseas bases are already operating. There is a possibility of establishment of such centers in Uzbekistan, not to mention the periodic discussions concerning transfer of military equipment and weaponry to Uzbekistan after withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan in 2014, "Yerlan Karin said.
According to him, the world military expenditures have increased by more than half by the mid 2000s. Thus, according to the analyst, global military expenditure constituted $ 1.7 trillion in 2011.
"Experts often refer this increase to the growing threat of terrorism. All governments motivate growing military expenditures with necessity of combating terrorism. Extremist and terrorist activity grows in a parallel with military expenditures. We're talking about economic crisis, lack of resources, but in overall, another growing trend, "Karin said.
The expert also presented estimates made by foreign structures, most of which are monitoring the problem of terrorism. Thus, as he mentioned, according to the forecasts for 2013, Kazakhstan is ranked among the countries with high threat of terrorism.
"According to the U.S. State Department, in ten years period, until the mid-2000s, the total number of terrorist acts in the world didn't exceed 600 per year. Since 2005, their number has increased dramatically, and in a year more than ten thousand acts of terrorism are carried out. In 2011 more than 10,000 terrorist attacks were carried out, of which more than 60 percent are recorded in Afghanistan and Pakistan," Karin said.
Alongside, the political analyst mentioned that effects of withdrawal of NATO coalition forces from Afghanistan in 2014 on situation in Central Asia is unknown.