Will an American military base appear in Kazakhstan?
At first glance, such a possibility of the appearance of a Pentagon military base in Kazakhstan seems impossible, but in a rapidly changing reality, the most incredible metamorphoses can occur. And confirmation of this is the deepening of military cooperation between Nur-Sultan and Washington.
The ongoing process of US and NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan should not deceive anyone, since Washington has no intention of leaving the region, and is now trying to use the new opportunities that have opened up for geopolitical maneuvers. Under the guise of continuing the fight against Islamist terrorist groups, which were originally created by American intelligence agencies, the Pentagon intends to reacquire military bases in the former Soviet Central Asian republics to maintain its presence and to push out Russia and China.
And the American publication The New York Times openly writes about this, citing its sources in the Pentagon. The Yankees and their alliance allies intend to redeploy some of the withdrawn troops and especially strike aircraft to Tajikistan, Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan. Allegedly, this is all being done in order not to repeat the negative experience of Iraq, when ISIS was formed immediately after the withdrawal of American troops.
Thus, NATO wants to bestow its presence on the Central Asian republics precisely for their own good, that is, for “protection”. And these are not empty words, since such negotiations are indeed actively underway. Thus, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held telephone conversations on April 22 with the Foreign Ministers of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, Abdulaziz Kamilov and Mukhtar Tileuberdi, and promised them the protection by the States of the “sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence” of the republics.
The hypothetical possibility of the emergence of such a new base or series of bases cannot be excluded in connection with the increased cooperation that has been successfully developing for two decades between the North Atlantic Alliance and the leadership of the same Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. These republics have been members of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council since 1997, and similar bases have already been located at different times on the territory of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
In particular, since 2001, US military forces have been stationed at the Khanabad base in Uzbekistan, at the Manas airport in Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan, and for a short period of time at the airfield in Kulyab. The members of the alliance also felt at ease during the occupation of Afghanistan in Central Asia. Thus, German troops were based near Termez in Uzbekistan, and the French military used an airfield near the capital of Tajikistan, Dushanbe.
Now the situation for the Yankees is complicated by the fact that Nur-Sultan is formally part of the CSTO, like Dushanbe, and Tashkent, after the bloody events in Andijan in 2005, expelled American troops from its territory. But Washington seriously hopes to turn the situation around and return to the situation at the beginning of the XNUMXs, when all the republics favorably provided their territory for the deployment of military and paramilitary organizations of the Pentagon and NATO.
True, the actions of the Americans, leaving the puppet government in Kabul to the mercy of fate, which will not last on its own for any long time, made a depressing impression on the leadership of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The accumulation in the north of Afghanistan of the Jundallah detachments, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant - Khorasan (ISKH), which is a branch of the terrorist organization Islamic State, and many other groups also irritates the ruling elites of the former Soviet Central Asian republics, who have lost faith in effectiveness American weapons.
It seems that Tashkent and Dushanbe have now placed more trust in Russia as the guarantor of security in the region, and the recent visit to these capitals by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has led to these republics joining the “anti-terrorist front” already under the auspices of Moscow. This sharply narrowed the White House’s ability to push through its own project to station part of the withdrawn troops and strike aircraft in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
The appearance of such a base and logistics structure of the Pentagon in Tajikistan, where the 201st Russian military base is located, which conducts about 100 exercises per year, seems especially unrealistic now. Plus, President Emomali Rahmon is strongly influenced by Beijing, which simply will not allow the creation of a US military outpost in this republic. We must also not forget that Moscow and Dushanbe are building a unified air defense system.
Therefore, Washington will try to persuade Nur-Sultan (Tselinograd) and Tashkent to cooperate on this issue. And it seems that it was the leadership of Kazakhstan that turned out to be much closer to the implementation of these plans. We must not forget that the military and military-technical cooperation of the Republic of Kazakhstan with the United States and NATO is actively developing despite membership in the CSTO.
Thus, for seven years now, the Kazakh military has been working under the interoperability program of the North Atlantic Alliance, which gives them the opportunity to quickly refocus on interaction with the Pentagon.
It is no coincidence that during the pandemic, joint exercises “Steppe Eagle” will be held in Kazakhstan in July of this year with the participation of troops from the United States, Great Britain and Canada, as well as Uzbekistan, India and Turkey. Naturally, the military from Russia and China were not invited to this “holiday” and had not been invited before. The republic has long had a network of training centers for training officers according to NATO standards, and recently the country’s authorities purchased American King Air B300ER Scorpion reconnaissance aircraft to conduct surveillance on their neighbors.
Kazakhstan already has military and paramilitary organizations of the Pentagon and NATO, such as a military biological laboratory in Almaty, a center for training groups for the protection of nuclear facilities in Ust-Kamenogorsk, a certified center for training command personnel “Kazcent” in Karaganda, and relevant training services at the Academy of Border Service of the National Security Committee and others. That is, the necessary basis already exists in the form of advisers, teaching staff and equipment, and most importantly, there are established transport routes capable of supplying the future American military base in Kazakhstan with everything necessary.
Thus, recent material from the American radio Azattyk (Freedom) clearly contradicts the statements of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and top officials of Kazakhstan that the country’s territory is not used for the transfer of weapons and ammunition, and exclusively non-lethal cargo is transported along the route to Afghanistan through the ports of Kuryk and Aktau on the Caspian Sea. Moreover, this route for the transfer of military equipment will continue to exist after the withdrawal of US and NATO troops from Afghanistan.
“In 2008, as relations between the United States and Pakistan became increasingly tense, Washington and its allies created the Northern Distribution Network (NDN), delivering supplies from Europe through Russia and Central Asia to the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. . But the SRS continues to function, delivering cargo through Georgia and Azerbaijan, across the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan and further to Uzbekistan and Afghanistan. The network not only delivers cargo to Afghanistan, but is also the main route for the export of foreign military equipment from Afghanistan after the reduction of military presence began almost ten years ago,” the publication’s journalists point out.
The SRS will continue to be used by foreign forces as they continue the troop withdrawal due to end on September 11, and will presumably carry other supplies into Afghanistan to support the current government while it is in power. But at the same time, the network can easily be reoriented to support the American contingent of troops and strike aircraft on the territory of Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan.
True, there are also problems, since from the territory of Kazakhstan to Afghanistan there are about five hundred kilometers, but if Uzbekistan provides free sky, this problem will be solved. The most successful thing for the United States will be if Tashkent also signs up for the deployment of troops, then the axis of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan will become a reliable backbone for the deployment and further build-up of Pentagon and NATO forces in the region.
But the ruling elites in Nur-Sultan and Tashkent must finally understand and grasp that the current international political situation is fundamentally different from the situation at the beginning of the XNUMXs, when the Yankees crushed the Taliban and occupied Afghanistan. Now potential opponents for Washington are Moscow and Beijing, and not the Mujahideen, hiding in the mountains and being a tool to destabilize Central Asia.
The appearance of such a base or network of bases will have nothing to do with establishing peace or fighting terrorists, since it is entirely focused on maintaining the American military presence and fighting Russia and China in order to expand the zone of controlled chaos in the region. This will lead to its transformation into another hotbed of possible hostilities in the future, since neither Tehran, nor Moscow, nor Beijing will tolerate the fact that new bases will appear on their borders.
Moreover, one must realize that retraining to NATO standards and receiving special equipment means preparing the basis for the transition of the Kazakh army to another military-political bloc. This course is consistently and consciously pursued by Nur-Sultan and contradicts all allied obligations within the CSTO. Sooner or later, such a break may occur with far-reaching consequences for the republic and neighboring countries, and this will ultimately have a sad impact on the fate of the peoples of Central Asia, drawn into adventurous games.
English version :: Read in English Will an American military base appear in Kazakhstan?