#16 - JRL 7285
RFE/RL Newsline
August 11, 2003
PUTIN IN SAMARKAND: THE 'OLD FRIEND' RETURNS
By Adam Albion
Russian President Vladimir Putin paid a one-day working visit on 6 August to Uzbekistan's second city of Samarkand, where he held three-hour talks with President Islam Karimov. The presidents' discussions ranged from economic relations -- notably the need to reverse a slump in bilateral trade -- to the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on terrorism. However, boosting cooperation between the Uzbek and Russian hydrocarbon industries topped the agenda, including the prospects for Russian companies to participate in the exploitation of Uzbek oil and gas fields and the modernization of the country's energy system.
Commentators noted Russia's interest to reassert its economic influence in Uzbekistan, which many linked to a general strategy to increase Russian influence in the Central Asian region as a whole, and to counter what the Kremlin perceives as U.S.-backed efforts to construct pipelines in the Caspian region that bypass Russia. In this context, it is significant that the meeting was Putin's first visit to Uzbekistan since Karimov contracted a strategic partnership with Washington in the fall of 2001.
At a joint press conference, Karimov stressed that Uzbekistan and Russian have "no differences" on oil and gas issues, while Putin said their talks on the topic produced tangible results, VOA reported on 6 August. "We are interested in using the pipelines running through Central Asia in the most effective way, and to maximum capacity," the Russian leader said, as quoted by russiajournal.com. He added that this effort is fully supported by the Russian gas giant Gazprom, and that the Russian government, in turn, is ready to back Gazprom's activities in Uzbekistan. Karimov also stressed to journalists that his country welcomes the company's participation in developing its natural-gas deposits.
Gazprom -- whose chief, Aleksei Miller, was in Tashkent on 22 July to discuss joint gas projects with Karimov -- both buys gas from Uzbekistan and has a partnership agreement on the transit of Uzbek gas. The company signed a contract last December with the Uzbek state holding firm Uzbekneftegaz on the export of 5 billion cubic meters of gas over a 12-month period. Shipment of the gas commenced in May 2003. By 2005, Uzbekistan has ambitions to export as much as 10 billion cubic meters of gas with the technical assistance of Gazprom. The government has been signaling for months that it plans to sell more of its gas. Prime Minister Utkir Sultonov warned the Russian gas firm Itera on 15 July that it will be unable to use the Uzbek pipeline system to ship the amount of gas it requested to transit through the country, because Tashkent will be giving precedence to shipments of its own gas. Uzbekistan is also exporting gas under a 2003 contract with the Russian firm Gazeksport that envisages increasing exports in the coming years.
Russia's share in Uzbekistan's foreign trade has fallen from 25 percent to 16 percent in the past 10 years, a drop that Putin in Samarkand described as a cause for "concern." Last year alone saw a 20 percent decline in bilateral trade. Considering ways to halt this trend, Putin suggested that Russian enterprises could play a greater role in processing Uzbek cotton. "At the moment, our textile industry buys cotton from third-party countries," Putin said. The two sides consequently were looking to eliminate such intermediaries, according to uzreport.com.
The presidents also discussed collaborating in the fields of aircraft construction, machine engineering, water management, and military-technical matters. Moreover, they agreed to revive an intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation, which last met in 2001, to work on developing joint business projects and harmonizing legislation, uzreport.com reported. The reactivated commission will meet in September. Meanwhile, Russia's Ambassador to Uzbekistan Farit Muhamedshin said that representatives of Russian business circles will soon be arriving to explore opportunities.
On the security front, the leaders discussed counterterrorism measures being developed under the aegis of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). "We welcome an initiative by Uzbekistan to host the SCO antiterrorism center in Tashkent and today Islam Karimov reported what is being done to implement it," Putin told journalists on 6 August. Significantly, he was speaking on the day that military units from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia launched the first stage of SCO exercises at a Kazakh air base, involving training in intercepting aircraft, dropping airborne troops, and encircling and eliminating a terrorist group. SCO members originally planned to establish the antiterrorism center in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek. Karimov's successful effort to get it moved to Tashkent is one of the signs that his regime -- having spurned most regional security initiatives, and generally shunned Russia, especially after throwing in its lot with the United States in the wake of 11 September 2001 -- is reexamining the wisdom of putting too many eggs in one basket and seeking a more balanced policy.
As Karimov said himself on 6 August: "We understand unambiguously the significant role that Russia is playing not only in our bilateral relations, and not only in multilateral relations within the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States]. We are convinced, and the rest of the world recognizes it too, that Russia is rising again and regaining its leading positions that rightfully belong to it."
Yet this statement flies in the face of countless speeches the Uzbek leader has made over the last decade, demeaning Russia and proclaiming that its days as regional hegemon were finished. Thus, Karimov was not merely laying on compliments and flattery for his guest's enjoyment. He was engaged in the more humiliating exercise of eating his words -- almost making a public recantation in the Russian president's presence.
Karimov even cast a tiny shadow over the Uzbek cult of mustaqillik
(independence) touted by his ideologues as the ultimate good. As reported by
bbcrussian.com, he admitted that Uzbekistan, "just like other CIS
countries," experienced "definite euphoria" after the collapse of
the USSR, but now understands the need to establish firm bilateral relations
with Russia.
Perhaps the toughest moment for Karimov was when he acknowledged that Uzbekistan and Russia had made mistakes in the past regarding their relationship. But an old friend is always better than a new one, he went on to say, according to VOA -- and one imagines he gritted his teeth while doing so. Presumably this was as unpleasant for him to say as it was for Washington, Uzbekistan's "new friend," to hear. After years of harassing Russia for trying to dominate, undermine, or meddle in the region, Karimov's words welcoming it back to Central Asia came close to eating crow.
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