Upcoming NATO forum to be dialogue platform

To some extent the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan depends on how successful the initiatives developed in Brussels will be in practice?, Director of the Center for the Study of China of the Institute of World Economy and Policy under the Kazakh President?s Fund Yelnara Bainazarova said in the interview to Kazinform. According to the expert, the issue of Kazakhstan?s cooperation with NATO within the Partnership for Peace Program, Individual Partnership Action Plan and NATO-EAPC bears both prospects and risks. It is obvious that changes in the geopolitical and geo-economic situation in the world, regional problems, political collisions and conflicts of interests, especially in the Central Asian region, raise controversy when skeptics deny NATO?s compliance with modern standards. Probably the interests of a number of states, particularly those in Central Asia, do not coincide with the NATO interests at the global level, but such regional problems as drug trafficking, terrorism, illegal migration or provision of border security, rearmament, modernization of our armed forces are real problems that need practical solution. In the face of such threats international organizations of all countries are equal. They should coordinate efforts to solve these problems. In this context Kazakhstan?s chairmanship in OSCE in 2010 will serve as a kind of bridge for strengthening of contacts between western and Asian security structures. If any structure is striving for the formation of stability and security in the country and the whole region, Kazakhstan will certainly accept it. It is necessary to establish a dialog at the level of politicians, expert community and civil society between NATO, CSTO and SCO on the one part and between the countries of the region with the USA, China and Russia on the other part. Besides, it is important to strengthen the role of CICA as previously it was considered as the OSCE in Asia. This year Astana will hold the III Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions. Within the framework of these humanitarian initiatives our country can once more show its authority on the world arena. In strategic view the cooperation between Kazakhstan and the NATO is first of all an advantage in the context of modernization of the armed forces, harmonization of air navigation and communication networks. The second sphere of cooperation is protection of borders through technical assistance, equipage of frontier posts, retraining of officers. The work in this direction has already been activated. Different seminars, trainings and exercises are held annually. The EAPC Security Forum will be a kind of informal meeting for open discussion of all issues. It will help learn various opinions of the expert community and nongovernmental organizations. As the official summits are not allowed to raise existing problems straightforwardly, the forum will represent a dialog platform demonstrating all views. The forum will be very effective if it works out concrete recommendations on NATO reforming. She also noted that today harmonization of international organizations of the Eurasian territory is needed. They are CSTO, which begins to develop together with SCO and NATO. For instance, sometimes they make actions in Afghanistan separately; in some spheres duplicate each other. That is they do not coordinate their steps, and as a result it makes them to be the hostage of some political ambitions, of will of some states, and in practice we do not see their real effect. I mean as there was drug-traffic, it still exists. ?I think that on the forum we need to discuss the issue of limitation of supplies of chemical elements connected with heroin production. We should also discuss the problems of illegal migration flows. During the world crisis a huge amount of unemployed people grew, who would try to find haven in more successful countries?, - the expert thinks. She thinks that we ought to regulate the problems by civilized methods ? by laws. It is not a secret that while deportation of citizens, or exile of illegal migrants international relations worsen. In general I?d like to add about the connection ?Russia-NATO?. NATO is objective reality and Russia will have to take into account the interests of this organization. Kazakhstan could actively join this dialog to overcome the old stereotypes of the cold war. Kazakhstan is the only country of the Central Asia, which cooperates with the NATO. Since 2004 we have managed 4 programs: planning of the military-civil reaction in extraordinary situations, medicine service, environment security and military support of police. Today Kazakhstan intends to create Caspian navy. The U.S. are ready to invest into this project about USD 19 billion. Today all Central Asian countries are armed with soviet weapons. These countries are dependent from the Russian weapons supply. There would be talks that active cooperation with the NATO would influence the economical interests of Russia. But every country should think about its own interests. And the fact that Kazakhstan collaborates with the NATO does not mean that Kazakhstan is under influence of the U.S., - the expert says.