By Denis Korkodinov
The containment of the nuclear arms race is a key aspect of relations between the United States, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
The main reason for this is that the main world routes for the movement of nuclear weapons pass through the territory of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, which makes these countries extremely attractive to various types of terrorist groups and states with the aim of acquiring these weapons. In turn, Washington is interested in using the Central Asian region and, above all, Asnoo, Tashkent and Astana (Nur-Sultan) to counter the nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, virtually all countries of Central Asia and the South Caucasus, with the support of the United States and several other countries, began implementing projects related to tight control over the movement of nuclear weapons. A special contribution was made by Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, which at that time had huge nuclear reserves inherited from the USSR. In addition, Tashkent and Astana were still parties to the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty, and therefore had certain obligations to the international community. Subsequently, these countries became parties to the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction.
Among other things, the IAEA received almost unlimited rights to monitor the activities of reactors located in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, which was a kind of guarantee that these countries would refuse to use nuclear potential for military purposes.
The culmination of the implementation of the containment project was the creation of the so-called “Central Asian zone” of nuclear weapons renunciation, which, in addition to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, joined Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan. Such an initiative received a positive assessment by the international community in the person of the then UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who noted that the Central Asian experience in the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons is a model for other countries.
The main task of the Central Asian region, in this case, is to present the acquired anti-nuclear experience on a global scale. For this reason alone, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan supported Washington’s initiative to denounce North Korea and Iran’s nuclear program. At the same time, Astana and Tashkent have recently become the first countries of the post-Soviet space to become informal participants in the international coalition against the Ayatollah regime in Tehran. In turn, in order to deter Iran, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan provided their territory for the creation of US military bases, which, however, puts them in a very vulnerable position, since in the event of a military response from Tehran, Tashkent and Nur Sultan become potential targets.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev, becoming the president of Uzbekistan, intensified the policy on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. In particular, in 2016, he took the initiative to create a nuclear-free zone that would cover the entire Middle East. Such a proposal has caused sharp criticism from, first of all, Iran, Palestine and Saudi Arabia, which are trying to create their own nuclear weapons, and therefore, the initiative of the Uzbek leader conflicts with their interests.
As part of the anti-nuclear program, January 2017 was marked by Kazakhstan’s opening of the so-called “fuel bank” in Oskemen, containing up to 90 tons of base uranium. The financing of this project in the amount of $ 150 million was carried out mainly at the expense of the United States.
In this regard, Washington is interested in turning Central Asia into an exclusive nuclear-free zone and becoming an instrument of pressure on countries with the ambitions of nuclear powers.
For this reason, in August 2017, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the White House administration and Tashkent, according to which the parties agreed to carry out joint activities to combat illegal nuclear traffic. Moreover, it is precisely countering the nuclear threat that is a priority area of Astana’s foreign policy at the present stage of development. This served as the basis for the statement by US President Donald Trump that Kazakhstan is Washington’s “valuable partner” in nuclear deterrence, primarily Iran and North Korea.
(The views expressed in this article belong only to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of World Geostrategic Insights)