Transcripts
Press Conference with Ambassador Ordway
U.S. Embassy
Astana, Kazakhstan
December 19, 2007
Ambassador Ordway: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I’d like to welcome you all here today to this press conference.
First of all, let me congratulate Kazakhstan through you on the 16th anniversary of its independence. The United States was the first country to recognize Kazakhstan’s independence and the first country to establish an embassy here. We have taken great pride on the close relationship that we have had with Kazakhstan since the very beginning. We look forward to continuing our strategic partnership next year and for years to come.
I’m also very happy and quite pleased that Kazakhstan was selected at the OSCE Ministerial in Madrid as the chairman in office for 2010. We think this represents a great prospect for both the organization and for Kazakhstan. It is recognition of the many achievements that Kazakhstan has in the areas of economic reform, security, tolerance, religion, and ethnic harmony.
We also were very pleased at the quite detailed and positive commitments that Foreign Minister Tazhin made in Madrid about the organization and Kazakhstan’s commitment to the integrity of the organization, particularly including ODIHR. We were also quite pleased with the very strong commitments that he made on behalf of Kazakhstan to further democratic development, particularly in such key areas as legislative reform on media laws and elections. We, like many of Kazakhstan’s partners in OSCE, look forward to working very intensely over the next year or two to help Kazakhstan prepare for the chairmanship and to work with it as it implements the commitments that it has made.
With that I’d be happy to take your questions.
Vremya (newspaper): You’ve mentioned electoral legislation. Did Kazakhstan make a commitment to table the article related to peaceful gatherings?
Ambassador Ordway: I think the issue here is to take the existing legislation in the area of elections together with the recommendations that have been made by ODIHR and the international standards for elections and electoral legislation—then to amend the existing election laws in order to bring them more fully into compliance with the standards and recommendations. Some of this work has already been started over the past year as the Central Elections Commission and the Ministry of Justice have already done a lot of work on preparing draft amendments based on the previous recommendations of ODIHR. We understand that there will be further work done in order to complete this process in the course of 2008. But I don’t think the issue is in any one particular provision, it is to achieving progress and bringing the legislation overall into compliance with standards.
Radio Azattyk: President Nazarbayev said that the OSCE approved the Kazakhstani bid in advance; the United States and Great Britain were opposed. What else should Kazakhstan do to meet OSCE standards?
Ambassador Ordway: First of all, I don’t think it’s quite correct to say the United States was against Kazakhstan’s candidacy. What we’ve said all along is that we welcomed Kazakhstan’s candidacy but wanted to see additional efforts, additional activity that would show that Kazakhstan was committed not only in word but also in deed to reforms, particularly in the area of political reform and democratization. We’ve had a number of conversations with the authorities in Kazakhstan over the course of the last several years and we had a very intense dialogue as we went into the Madrid conference and in the course of the Madrid meeting of the ministers.
I think we, like our partners in this discussion, are quite satisfied with the outcome and now are looking forward very much at working with Kazakhstan to ensure that it has a successful and productive chairmanship in 2010.
Rakhat TV: The president asked the diplomatic corps to support Kazakhstan in its negotiations to accede to the WTO. At what stage is accession? How, for example, will the issue of genetically modified food be settled?
Ambassador Ordway: First of all, I don’t think there’s any doubt at all about our very strong political support for Kazakhstan’s entry into the WTO as soon as possible. This is seen in the Joint Statement that was issued after the visit of President Nazarbayev to Washington in October 2006. But WTO negotiations are very complicated and involve multilateral as well as a whole series of bilateral discussions and agreements. The United States has the world’s largest and most comprehensive and complicated economy. Therefore, it is always a very complicated issue to reach agreement on WTO that addresses an entire spectrum of trade issues that affect every single element of the American economy.
We’ve made good progress in our discussions. There is still a fair amount of work yet to be done, including in some very difficult and sensitive areas. Like any negotiation, when you have a lot of issues on both sides, it’s going to involve compromises, and those compromises have to be worked out through tradeoffs and over a period of time as you negotiate them. We certainly have interests in genetically modified organisms, but we have a lot of other interests as well. How those will all work out in the end is a process of give and take, and we’re very much into that process, and I can’t provide you any details, even if I could understand them myself.
Panorama (newspaper): How much time will be spent on the Kashagan matter?
And what are your thoughts about a number of countries that are no longer tying their economies to the dollar but rather are tying them to more stable European currencies?
Ambassador Ordway: On your first question, I think the issue really is for the entire consortium to work out with the government of Kazakhstan. It’s not an issue in which the United States government is directly involved, and we’re not taking part in the discussions or the negotiations. We certainly hope they will be concluded as quickly as possible and on a mutually agreeable basis. We have urged everybody involved to take a very practical, pragmatic, results-oriented approach to the negotiations, and we think it’s important that this project continue to be developed. It’s a very important contribution to the world’s energy security, and it’s a critical component of Kazakhstan’s development. We think it is important that the parties to this agree as soon as possible to get on with that job.
As far as your second question is concerned, one of the things they tell every single ambassador before they go out to start their job is never ever talk about the dollar. That’s the sole job of the secretary of the treasury. I don’t envy him, but I certainly am not going to step into his shoes.
Channel 31: It is surprising to hear that the United States didn’t oppose Kazakhstan’s chairmanship of the OSCE. Even right up to the ministerial in Madrid, nothing was known. What affected the outcome—wasn’t it oil
Ambassador Ordway: No. Energy has nothing to do with it whatsoever. I don’t think you’ve ever actually heard anybody, any official American say that we were against Kazakhstan. I’ve been holding press conferences in Kazakhstan for three and a half years, and I have never ever said we were against Kazakhstan.
It is true that we had some rather firm ideas about the kinds of actions that we would like to see from Kazakhstan in order to turn it from a possible candidate into chairman in office.
If you're against something, you work in order to prevent it from happening, and we were actually working to make it happen. It is true we didn’t stand up three and a half years ago or four years ago and say yes right away. We were working to get to a position where we could say yes, but we never said no.
Freedom of Speech (newspaper): Do you think the recent blocking of web sites and shutting down newspapers is a good idea for a country that is going to chair the OSCE?
Ambassador Ordway: First of all, I think the actions in shutting off access to web sites and shutting down newspapers is completely contrary to international standards and obligations that any member of the OSCE has. The commitment that Kazakhstan made in Madrid was to change the media laws in order to bring them more in line with the international standards that OSCE countries aspire to.
We would like to see Kazakhstan to be a very strong, authoritative, effective, and successful chairman in 2010. The more Kazakhstan does to demonstrate its commitment in both word and deed to OSCE standards across all the dimensions of OSCE work, I think the stronger Kazakhstan’s authority will be and the more effective and more successful the chairmanship will be. That’s what we would like to see—is a strong and effective, successful chairmanship.
Express K (newspaper): My question is about subsurface law. Recently a new amendment was passed, a new tax on mining operations imposed.
Ambassador Ordway: On the issue of the subsurface law, that’s now the law, but we certainly would hope and urge that it not be used in contravention of existing agreements that Kazakhstan has already signed with investors. Similarly with regard to any new additional or changes in taxes, Kazakhstan has signed agreements for a number of different fields, and those vary. We would expect that Kazakhstan would remain true to its word and would carry out the obligations that those particular contracts have. You'd have to look at each contract to see how that was consistent or inconsistent with new additional changed taxes.
(Inaudible): The agreement on Caspian pipeline construction will be signed tomorrow in Moscow. What are the prospects for this pipeline?
Ambassador Ordway: I think the issue of that pipeline depends upon the classic two elements in economics—supply and demand. We know there is demand in Western Europe, and we know there is supply in the Caspian region. How you get those two connected is basically a commercial issue. What’s good for a seller of energy resources like Kazakhstan is to have solid market mechanisms that get the best price for its product. One of the key elements in getting the effective market price is competition. So we are for a variety of ways to get energy to the market that requires that energy. I think as you look out in the years to come that it is certainly possible and probably even likely that there will be multiple paths not only for oil but for gas as well to get to markets. We think that a gas pipeline is certainly worth considering and looking into in terms of what kind of economic return it can bring to suppliers such as Kazakhstan.
(Inaudible): Which pipeline you are talking about now?
Ambassador Ordway: Transcaspian.
Freedom of Speech (newspaper): Zauresh Battalova was detained recently due to her role in organizing a protest rally, and today the court will deliver its verdict. How do you assess the human rights situation in Kazakhstan?
Ambassador Ordway: First of all, I can’t comment on that particular case, since I don’t know anything about the facts. But I think that reputation consists of many elements—some good, some bad. I think the effort should be to maximize the number of positive and minimize the number of negative. We certainly hope there will be much more positive in the future than negative.
Happy New Year.