Analysis of Foreign Policy of the Kyrgyz Republic for April-June 2007
Quarterly report
Foreign policy activity of Kyrgyzstan visibly increased in the second quarter of 2007 compared to the previous period. This was largely determined by certain stabilization of the internal political situation in the country after targeted actions undertaken by the authorities on splitting political opposition and failure of the April rallies led by the United Front. As a result of upheavals in internal political struggle President Bakiev managed to consolidate his positions and acquire necessary maneuver and freedom of actions before the most important foreign policy event of the year - Summit of the Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
Notwithstanding serious concerns in Bishkek and Astana regarding the internal political stability in Kyrgyzstan President Nursultan Nazarbaev of Kazakhstan paid a state visit to Bishkek on April 25-26, right after the opposition rallies. This visit of the head of the neighboring dynamically developing state had an important meaning primarily for President Bakiev because after his election as President of Kyrgyzstan in 2005 no foreign delegation of the highest level - on the level of President or Prime Minister - visited Bishkek. The visit of President Nazarbaev became the first one in this row and thus "foreign policy isolation" of Bakiev was in a certain sense broken through.
During his visit President Nazarbaev held negotiations with President Bakiev as a result of which they signed a Joint Statement of two Presidents. Instead of the scheduled speech in the parliament of Kyrgyzstan President Nazarbaev met with the leadership and several members of parliament. The range of questions discussed during those meetings was quite wide and touched upon not only problems in bilateral Kyrgyz-Kazakh relations, but also issues of cooperation of the two states in regional and international organizations as well as issues of stability and regional integration in Central Asia.
The parties again indicated their positions over the most important bilateral issues, including cooperation in the sphere of water and energy relations, participation of Kazakhstani capital in mining operations, in finance and banking as well as construction and telecommunications sectors of Kyrgyzstan's economy, property relations dealing with Kazakh resorts on the Lake Issykkul, the situation with Kyrgyz labor migrants in Kazakhstan, promotion of Kyrgyz goods on Kazakhstan's market and their transit to Russia and a number of other issues. However, they failed to come to one final decision.
In their Joint Statement presidents of the two states instructed their Cabinets to "adopt a Plan of activities on economic integration, which allows maximally disclosing the potential of cooperation between the two states...."
Following negotiations President Nazarbaev confirmed willingness of Kazakhstan to allocate 100 million USD for the development of Kyrgyzstan's economy and unequivocally stated about the intention of his country to participate in construction of the cascade of Kambarata hydroelectric power stations along with Russia.
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