Press Releases
U.S. and Kazakhstani Navies Renovate Aktau Barracks for Kazakhstan's Navy
May 17, 2006
On May 17 U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan John Ordway paid a visit to the Kazakhstani Naval Institute (KNI), which is being renovated by the U.S. Navy as part of the U.S.-Kazakhstan Five Year Plan of Military Cooperation.
In close cooperation with Kazakhstan's Ministry of Defense, eighteen U.S. Navy "Seabees," construction specialists, are spending four months renovating the dining facility, kitchen, classrooms, conference rooms, language laboratories, and storage areas, a project that cost over $1 million. The project will benefit all Kazakhstani maritime forces, who train at the Institute.
The Institute inherited a 1970s polytechnic institute campus, which required extensive repair before the renovation. The renovation project, the first of its kind in Kazakhstan, is similar to projects implemented by SeaBees for friends and partners around the world.
The U.S. Navy has been cooperating closely with Kazakhstan's Navy since it was re-established in 2003 and this renovation is one example of military cooperation activities between the U.S. and Kazakhstan in the Caspian region.
Some members of the Seabee detachment have served in Iraq, Afghanistan, Central America, and Africa, and for others the project in Aktau was their first deployment.