Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 30 /Trend, V.Zhavoronkova/
In addition to attending the OSCE summit in Astana, the goals of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's tour to Central Asia include the U.S. desire to thank the region countries for assistance, and to discuss further cooperation in a number of issues, said U.S. expert on Central Asia, Bruce Pannier.
Clinton has arrived in Kazakhstan to attend the OSCE summit to be held in Astana on Dec. 1-2. Furthermore, she will visit Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3.
During the summit in Astana, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and foreign minister of this country, in Kyrgyzstan - the President Rosa Otunbayeva and other government representatives.
In Uzbekistan, Clinton plans to meet with President Islam Karimov to discuss a wide range of issues concerning bilateral cooperation and regional issues.
U.S. Secretary of State's visit to three of the five Central Asian countries once again confirms the strategic importance of the region for America.
"Of course, the most obvious reason for going to these three is to express the thanks of the U.S. government for their help in the transit of goods to Afghanistan for U.S. and NATO troops," expert of Radio Liberty, Pannier, wrote in an e-mail to Trend.
Central Asia is a transit region for NATO cargo going to Afghanistan, where NATO conducts anti-terrorist operation, which began after the Sept. 11 events. However, in addition, the Secretary of State has interests in each of the countries.
Pannier said Clinton will want to meet with Kazakhstan's leadership because Kazakhstan is becoming an important regional player in Eurasia. Kazakhstan has oil and U.S. companies are involved in projects there. "Kazakhstan's economy is doing very well, especially in comparison with its Central Asian neighbors, although it could not be called a "democratic" country, he said. - Kazakhstan is still far ahead of its C.A. neighbors, except Kyrgyzstan, in terms of democratic reforms and respect for basic rights."
According to the expert, again, compared to its Central Asian neighbors, Kazakhstan did voluntarily give up its nuclear arsenal after the USSR collapsed and Astana is a leading voice for non-proliferation and secure storage of nuclear material.
Kyrgyzstan is easy - Manas airbase and support for a fledgling parliamentary system, said Pannier.
Manas Transit Center, formerly the Manas airbase, operating in Kyrgyzstan since 2001, is used by the U.S. within operations in Afghanistan. Its presence in the country was also supported by the new government of the republic, which came to power after a coup in April this year. The current government has made changes to the Constitution of the Republic, according to which Kyrgyzstan turned into a parliamentary form of government that was approved by referendum, which took place this summer.
"Clinton will congratulate new President Roza Otunbayeva and the new parliament and wish them well and probably say something like the U.S. is prepared to help Kyrgyzstan every step of the way on the Central Asian country's path toward democracy," said Pannier.
She will likely thank Kyrgyzstan for allowing the U.S. to use Manas, the expert said.
Uzbekistan is the best and most complicated, the expert said. Most of the goods NATO sends to Afghanistan by way of the Northern Distribution Route (NDR) pass through Uzbekistan (more than 90 percent according to some U.S. officials).
"The security situation in Pakistan makes it likely the amount of goods shipped via the NDR will increase very soon," Pannier said.
According to him, Uzbekistan seems to be looking around for a new "big power" friend. Uzbekistan's ties with Russia are not very good at the moment and Uzbekistan's ties with China are based on money.
"There were some highly publicized trials of independent journalists (VOA correspondent was one of them) and a documentary filmmaker in 2010. All were found guilty but immediately amnestied (though they still have criminal records)," said Pannier.
Karimov recently spoke about changing the constitution to further democratic reforms. The trials and unexpected comments on constitutional changes led some, including me, to think Karimov wanted better ties with the U.S. and was offering these gestures as a sign of good will, he said.