Transcripts
Interview by Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia Affairs Richard A. Boucher with Danil Moskalenko of Khabar TV
September 10, 2006
Astana, Kazakhstan
Note from the embassy press office. Khabar aired this interview September 10 for the Sunday evening Zheti Kun news program. Regrettably, the station edited some of Assistant Secretary Boucher's statements. This transcript provides the full text of Assistant Secretary Boucher's remarks. The sections highlighted in red were omitted from the broadcast interview.
QUESTION: Mr. Boucher, I’m very pleased to welcome you here to Kazakhstan. First of all I’d like to thank you for accepting our invitation to take part in this interview for our program.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOUCHER: Thank you. It’s a pleasure to be with you today and talk to all your viewers in Kazakhstan.
QUESTION: Mr. Boucher, in the State Department you’re responsible for the region that includes South and Central Asia. So first of all we would be interested in your opinion on the processes taking place in this region, including political and economic processes, not only Central Asia, but also in the Caspian region.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOUCHER: There are many different countries in this region, many different kinds of countries. Each one’s different. What we wanted to do was to see if we can’t help develop the ties between the north and the south in this region. Not to take away from any of the ties to the north, to Russia, to China, to Europe, to Turkey, to anywhere else in the world, but maybe to add more economic interaction and other interaction with countries towards the south, Pakistan and India. We think by doing this we give Kazakhstan more options, we add to the opportunities for the people in the region.
QUESTION: The role of Kazakhstan, all those processes, we would like you to define that.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOUCHER: Kazakhstan has been very important in all these processes. My first meeting with the Foreign Minister was in Kabul at a regional economic conference. When we’ve talked to President Nazarbayev, he’s talked about multiple outlets for Kazakhstan’s energy, for Kazakhstan’s trade, for Kazakhstan’s exports. So we’ve found Kazakhstan to be really a leading nation in terms of trying to build all these different regional ties.
QUESTION: President Nazarbayev, when he’s speaking about the region and Kazakhstan’s leadership in the region, he is talking about Kazakhstan becoming the main exporter of stability to the rest of the region, meaning not only the transfer of financial stability, but also the transfer of political experience for Kazakhstan. What do you think, to what extent is Kazakhstan ready to do that?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOUCHER: Kazakhstan’s achieved a lot in terms of establishing its independence, establishing its sovereignty, moving forward on non-proliferation, on security issues, on economic reform. And so there’s a lot for Kazakhstan to share with the other countries in this region. As Kazakhstan helps put together these different networks in the region, I think that is a very important role for Kazakhstan to play.
We also welcome the fact that Kazakhstan is playing a role in Iraq, playing a role more broadly on the world stage in trying to build security and we hope that that will expand as well.
QUESTION: Mr. Boucher, there’s a lot of discussion in the world currently about energy security and security of energy supply to give energy consumers more choices of suppliers and more choices of delivery routes, of energy resources. What in your opinion is the role of Kazakhstan?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOUCHER: As Kazakhstan develops its own energy resources for the benefit of your own nation and your own people, it also benefits the people on the world markets, particularly European customers and other customers who need the supplies of energy for their economic growth.
The important thing is for Kazakhstan to have lots of different ways of exporting and being able to reach these markets. So not only do we have many issues before us in terms of pipelines and export routes, expanding the pipelines through Russia is important, building the pipelines and the connections with China is important, getting across the Caspian for oil and eventually to get gas supplies across the Caspian. This is important as well, and eventually probably even southern alternatives.
One of the things we’re working on is electricity exports through the south down to Pakistan, so there are a variety of ways of exporting energy supplies and making use of all your resources for the good of the nation.
We’re trying to support all those efforts. We have American companies involved, American governments involved, we’re financing a feasibility study for a pipeline across the Caspian that can take gas across the Caspian. So there are new opportunities available. Our interest is in seeing Kazakhstan take advantage of all these different opportunities.
QUESTION: You know that an important step for Kazakhstan is to integrate in the world, in world markets. A lot of emphasis is placed on Kazakhstan’s accession to the WTO. Of course, in that organization the opinions of the major members of the organization who have been in the organization the longest time are important. What is the United States' opinion of Kazakhstan’s membership in the WTO? Kazakhstan counts on United States' support of its WTO membership.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOUCHER: Absolutely. The membership of Kazakhstan in the WTO can be a very important development and we very much support it.
I met this morning actually with your WTO negotiator. We talked about how to make these negotiations progress.
It’s important for two reasons. One is for Kazakhstan. It’s part of this process of economic reform. It’s part of this process of more transparency, more accountability, more standards that can make the nation more healthy economically. It’s also an important part of putting the region together, having everybody abide by the same standards, having everybody work together on the basis of transparent and open regulation so that trade can prosper in this region, so that all these economic ties can work well.
QUESTION: Let’s talk about bilateral relations in our countries. You mentioned already that U.S. companies are interested in promoting some of the projects in the oil and gas sectors. But apart from the energy sector, what are the other industries or areas of the economy where our cooperation has a potential to grow?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOUCHER: One of the goals Kazakhstan has set is to diversify its economy. We think that’s a very important goal and our countries and our government are both very interested.
We just had a major investment by General Electric Company in making locomotives here with your railway conglomerate. We’re seeing a major investment by another American company in expanding electric power generation. Our Agriculture Secretary just brought a big delegation including 18 companies to talk about cooperation in agriculture. So I think all these things are moving forward.
One of the important things for Kazakhstan to do is to get the investment environment right and the economic reforms have contributed to this, but you need to make it possible for, easier for domestic companies to start businesses, for foreign companies to invest, for domestic and foreign companies to cooperate, particularly small companies. We need to deal with issues of transparency, especially deal with corruption which is horribly difficult for small companies and really try to grow the small and medium enterprises. That can encourage cooperation by small and medium enterprises from overseas.
QUESTION: Mr. Boucher, in reference books in the West, the description of Kazakhstan that you find is very simple, but at the same time now they say that Kazakhstan is a vast country in terms of territory, it has a lot of natural resources, oil and gas. What is mentioned less frequently is that Kazakhstan is a multi-ethnic country, a country of many religions, and there hasn’t been a serious conflict in Kazakhstan based on religious or ethnic grounds.
So, in this connection, just before the start of the conference on the world religions, what do you think of the initiatives by the President of Kazakhstan to organize an international dialogue of religions, or what is sometimes described as a dialogue of civilizations?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOUCHER: I think it’s important. We think it’s a very useful thing. There’s a lot of ethnic strife in the world. (Inaudible comment). It’s important to look at how religion can contribute to more peace, more harmony for people. That’s what they want in their lives.
The question is, how do you create a political process so all the different ethnic groups, different religious groups, different parts of society can work together and not find themselves in conflict? That’s why the political reform process, democratization process, is so important. That’s why having the ability to elect your representatives freely or to hear all the different voices in the media, or to gather in groups and organize yourself is so important, is because it gives everybody from all these different parts of society a chance to participate in the political system.
So as we look at Kazakhstan we think this is a very important initiative, but also we want to see the forward movement on issues like the election law, the media law, freedom of assembly, issues like that that can give everybody from different points of view the kind of participation in society here and elsewhere that people deserve and that can really create the cooperation between the different groups and different religions.
QUESTION: Democratic and political reform, the process of democratization is actively underway in Kazakhstan. The Commission for Democratization is operating. What is your opinion of the democratization processes in Kazakhstan?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOUCHER: First of all, I think we very much agree on the importance of political reform, democratization. It goes with economic reform. A modern economy operates on openness and creativity of people, participation and information. You need to have those not only in an economic sense, but in a political sense for the people to be able to exercise their abilities fully.
Second of all, I think we agree on the important goals that have been set. Things like strengthening the powers in parliament, strengthening the powers of local institutions, expanding the information environment, expanding citizen participation. These are very important.
What’s important, though, is to move from the goals to the actions and to really pass the laws, institute the regulations, that open up the system, that give people a chance to operate freely as political parties or to express their views, to form civic organizations, to run for office and get elected on a fair basis. As you move from goals to action we’re very happy to be part of that, we’re very happy to try to participate and cooperate with you.
QUESTION: These processes get actively underway in October this year; we’re going to have a large-scale election of people in the executive branch, the leaders on the district level, oblast level, and also people who are heads of executive branches in the regional cities, mayors.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOUCHER: It’s important, but it’s important to do it in such a way that it opens up the political system, so you don’t have too much of the people inside the system electing more people like themselves. You need to have a way to open it up and bring in more participation. That will be a key part to especially local elections. Because local elections are where people and candidates emerge and start to play a role in the political system.
QUESTION: Mr. Boucher, last question. Later this month the President of Kazakhstan is going to visit the United States of America. What are the expectations in Washington of this visit? Is this visit considered defining in the development of the relationship between Kazakhstan and the United States?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOUCHER: I think it’s a very good time, it’s a very critical time for the Presidents to talk to each other.
We have been able to establish a very solid relationship that’s based on economics, on security cooperation, on interest in democracy. It’s a relationship that has strategic importance for both countries. So when Presidents get together they’ll be able to look at the whole breadth of this and the increasing cooperation that we have, and I hope hear from each other about how they want to move in the future. How they want to move on security cooperation, economic cooperation, and on progress of democracy. That will be very important for President Bush to hear from President Nazerbayev.
Then the rest of us get to work and say okay, this is what the leaders want, now let’s go do it.
So I guess my best hope for the visit is that all of those of us who are involved in carrying out what the Presidents want have a lot more new work to do, new areas to develop after the Presidents talk. It will be a very positive visit.
QUESTION: I hope that will be indeed the case.
Thank you very much, Mr. Boucher, for this interview. I’d like to thank you.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOUCHER: Thank you very much. It was a pleasure.