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"War Without Borders": Washington Intensifies Push Into Central
Asia
By Rick Rozoff
URL of this article:www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23012
Global Research, January 30, 2011 Stop NATO
A recent editorial on the website of Voice of America reflected on
last year being one in which the United States solidified relations
with the five former Soviet republics in Central Asia: Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
One or more of the five nations border Afghanistan, Russia, China
and Iran and several more than one of the latter. Kazakhstan, for
example, adjoins China and Russia.
The U.S. and Britain, with the support of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization, invaded Afghanistan and fanned out into Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in October of 2001, less than four months
after Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan
founded the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to foster
expanding economic, security, transportation and energy cooperation
and integration in and through Central Asia. In 2005 India, Iran
and Pakistan joined the SCO as observers and Afghan President Hamid
Karzai has attended its last five annual heads of state summits.
[1]
Now the U.S. and the NATO have over 150,000 troops planted directly
south of three Central Asian nations.
Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are also on the Caspian Sea, a reservoir
of oil and natural gas whose dimensions have only been accurately
determined in the past twenty years and where American companies
are active in hydrocarbon projects.
After the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the Pentagon and its NATO
allies deployed military forces to, in addition to Soviet-constructed
air bases in Afghanistan, bases in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and
Uzbekistan. The first two countries border China.
As of last March the U.S. military confirmed that a monthly average
of 50,000 American and NATO troops passed through Kyrgyzstan's
Transit Center at Manas as part of the war in Afghanistan. Also
last year, U.S. officials mentioned building new military training
centers in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
The Voice of America feature mentioned above cited a speech by U.S.
Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert O.
Blake, Jr., who two years ago succeeded Richard Boucher in that
role.
The State Department's Blake delivered a speech at the James A.
Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston,
Texas entitled "The Obama Administration' s Priorities in South and
Central Asia."
Shorn of superfluous banter and obligatory diplomatese, his address
accentuated American geopolitical designs in an area which Blake
highlighted as being of vitally important interest to Washington:
"Central Asia lies at a critical strategic crossroads, bordering
Afghanistan, China, Russia and Iran, which is why the United States
wants to continue to expand our engagement and our cooperation with
this critical region." [2]
In furtherance of U.S. designs in an area that not only abuts the
four nations named, but if controlled by the U.S. would prevent
regional cooperation between them except insofar as it is mediated
by an outside power, Washington, Blake listed the three priorities
for the region as being to:
Support international efforts in Afghanistan
Build a strategic partnership with India
Develop more durable and stable relations with the Central Asian
countries
He commented after the above itemization: "After describing these
priorities at greater length, I will then focus on energy resources
in Central Asia, which I imagine is of particular interest in
Houston," where ConocoPhillips, Shell Oil Company and Halliburton'
s Energy Services Group have their headquarters.
The State Department assistant secretary also emphasized the role
of the recently activated Northern Distribution Network (NDN) in
moving supplies, military equipment and troops to the Afghan war
front from the west, promoting the concept that "The NDN increasingly
offers the people of the Central Asian countries the opportunity
to sell goods and services to NATO troops in Afghanistan, and we
hope it can help catalyze greater trade and economic cooperation
between Afghanistan and Central Asia."
The U.S. has assiduously worked to ensure that Chinese, Russian and
Iranian influence in Central Asia and Afghanistan is blocked and
instead promotes the economic, transportation and security integration
of the region through the Pentagon-NATO Northern Distribution
Network. The U.S. and NATO intend the NDN to supplant the SCO as
the engine of economic and security integration in Central Asia.
To date eleven of the fifteen former federal republics of the Soviet
Union - all except for Armenia, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine - have
been incorporated into the NDN grid originating in the Baltic and
Black Seas.
Washington is also exploiting Afghanistan and Central Asia to attain
an even larger prize. Again according to Blake, "South Asia, with
India as its thriving anchor, is a region of growing strategic and
commercial importance to the United States in the critical Indian
Ocean area.
"In total, the region is home to over two billion people - roughly
one fourth of the worlds population."
He elaborated further on the main strategic objective of the wider
Afghan war when he stated that "projects with India in Afghanistan
mark a small but important part of a significant new global development
- the emergence of a global strategic partnership between India and
the United States," as "by 2025 India is expected to become the 3rd
largest economy in the world, behind the United States and China."
"Secretary Clinton and other Cabinet officials will also travel to
India this spring for the U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue, which
oversees the entire spectrum of our cooperation. "
Blake also reminded his audience of an initiative instituted last
year and conducted under his jurisdiction: Annual Bilateral
Consultations (ABCs) with all five Central Asian countries. In his
Houston speech he stated, "I look forward to starting the second
round of ABCs with Uzbekistan next month in Tashkent."
Blake's boss, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, visited Uzbekistan
last month - the first secretary of state to do since Colin Powell's
trip there in December of 2001 - as well as Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan,
and Uzbek President Islam Karimov just returned from Brussels where
NATO had invited him to visit its headquarters and meet with Secretary
General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. While in the Belgian capital he also
met with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barossa and
Energy Commissioner G|nther Oettinger. Uzbekistan, though poor in
oil supplies, is one of the largest producers of natural gas in the
former Soviet Union.
Uzbekistan is, like its neighbors, assuming greater significance
for the U.S.-NATO war effort in South Asia: "The airport at the
Uzbek city of Navoi has emerged as a key cog in the Northern
Distribution Network, a web of Central Asian rail, road and air
links that funnels supplies to US and NATO troops in Afghanistan.
Most of the NDN supplies bound for Afghanistan flow through the
railway junction at Termez, at the Uzbek-Afghan border." [3] German
troops are based in Termez and across the border in Afghanistan' s
Kunduz province.
While Clinton was in Kyrgyzstan she, seemingly without even the
suggestion of a formal agreement to the effect, assumed the extension
of U.S. rights to the air base there, stating "Washington would
examine again in 2014 whether it needed the Manas base."
"Clinton said Manas was the central transit point for troops from
49 countries going into Afghanistan. " [4]
Her subordinate Blake's speech at Rice University also included
discussion of the strategic role of Central Asia in regards to
hydrocarbon extraction and transport. He claimed that the biggest
and richest of the Central Asian states, Kazakhstan, "will account
for one of the largest increases in non-OPEC supply to the global
market in the next 10-15 years as its oil production doubles to
reach 3 million barrels a day by 2020." The U.S. and its EU and
NATO allies have long planned the shipping of Kazakh oil and natural
gas westward to the South Caucasus and thence to Europe, both
bypassing and replacing Russia as Europe's main supplier of
hydrocarbons.
Western projects include the Nabucco natural gas pipeline and
building a pipeline under the Caspian Sea to bring Kazakh oil to
Azerbaijan where it would be transported via the Baku-Tbilisi-
Ceyhan (Azerbaijan- Georgia-Turkey) pipeline with a connection to
an Odessa-Brody- Plock-Gdansk branch running from Ukraine to Poland's
Baltic Sea coast and from there to the rest of Europe.
That is, the Western-initiated Southern Corridor versus Russia's
South Stream natural gas pipeline to the Black Sea and the Balkans.
In 2009 Richard Morningstar, the State Department's Special Envoy
for Eurasian Energy, spoke in the Czech Republic at an EU summit
called Southern Corridor-New Silk Road, and asserted: "President
Obama and Secretary of State Clinton share your support for the
Southern Corridor and consider Eurasian energy issues to be of the
highest importance."
His State Department colleague Blake also said last week: "Though
often overlooked as an energy source, Uzbekistan has substantial
hydrocarbon reserves of its own and produces about as much natural
gas as Turkmenistan. Located at the heart of Central Asia, much of
the regions infrastructure roads, railroads, transmission lines,
and pipelines - goes through Uzbekistan, offering it a unique
opportunity to expand its exports with little investment in new
infrastructure. "
The energy project that attracted the attention of Blake most,
however, was the agreement concluded on December 11 of last year
for the TAPI (Turkmenistan- Afghanistan- Pakistan- India) natural
gas pipeline to run from the Caspian Sea littoral nation that gives
the acronym its first letter to India, which was the death sentence
for a competing "peace pipeline" from Iran to Pakistan, from there
to India and onward to China - the $7 billion, 1,430-mile Iran-Pakistan-
India gas (IPI) pipeline - that had been years in the planning but
was opposed by Washington, which backed the earlier TAP (Turkmenistan-
Afghanistan- Pakistan) and later the TAPI alternative.
The pipeline is extend over 10,000 miles and deliver 33 billion
cubic meters of natural gas annually.
After mentioning that "The countrys substantial natural resources
may make Turkmenistan one of the top five countries worldwide in
terms of gas reserves" which have "attracted the attention of many
countries interested in securing Turkmen gas for various pipeline
projects," Blake announced that "The U.S. has welcomed renewed
interest in TAPI." In fact it has been the prime mover behind the
project through its influence in the Asian Development Bank, which
is underwriting the pipeline's construction.
Turkmenistan' s President Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov "almost
single-handedly resurrected the Turkmenistan- Afghanistan- Pakistan-
India pipeline, which if successful will finally link the resources
in Central Asia with the markets of the south," Blake added.
In the middle of this month Afghan President Karzai and Indian
President Pratibha Devisingh Patil sent letters to their Turkmen
counterpart "express[ing] confidence that the gas pipeline TAPI
(Turkmenistan- Afghanistan- Pakistan- India) will be implemented
soon." [5]
Shortly afterward Berdimukhamedov met with European Commission
President Jose Manuel Barroso, who also met with Azerbaijan's
President Ilham Aliyev on the same trip and subsequently with Uzbek
President Karimov in Brussels, in the Turkmen capital and announced
that his government is prepared to replicate the TAPI project by
shipping Caspian natural gas to Europe with "construction of a
pipeline under the Caspian Sea [and] transportation of natural gas
across the Caspian Sea on specialized ships, tankers." [6] Turkmenistan
will then link up with the Southern Energy Corridor (including the
Nabucco gas pipeline) to bring Caspian and Middle Eastern, including
Iraqi, natural gas to Europe.
Until now Turkmenistan' s natural gas deals had been primarily with
Russia, China and Iran. Both Russia and China have expressed interest
in participating in the TAPI pipeline, but the U.S. will ensure
that doesn't occur. "Washingtons vital interest in TAPI includes
having an alternative route for Central Asian gas that will bypass
the Russian pipelines' network."
In addition, "India has objected to any Chinese firm or consortium
being given contracts related to the building of the Turkmenistan-
Afghanistan- Pakistan- India (TAPI) gas pipeline." [7]
"The U.S. has supported TAPI and Turkmen efforts to keep Russia
off the project as a way to break Russias and Chinas monopoly on
exporting Caspian Basin energy to the rest of the world." [8]
It was observed years ago by past Deputy Assistant Secretary of
State for European and Eurasian Affairs and all-around former Soviet
space hand Matthew Bryza, now the incoming U.S. ambassador to
Azerbaijan, that the transportation corridor the U.S. and its Western
allies developed in the 1990s to ship energy to the west was used
to transport troops and equipment to the east starting with the
2001 invasion of Afghanistan. What the U.S. and NATO have for years
called the New Silk Road, which is in truth an arms and energy
transit route.
Until recently, however, Turkmenistan had remained comparatively
uninvolved in the transit going both ways. It is the only Central
Asian nation not to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and
the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (which also
includes Armenia and Belarus as member states.)
Journalist Deirdre Tynan has provided valuable information on the
degree to which Turkmenistan has been surreptitiously incorporated
into the U.S. and NATO greater Afghan war structure. Two years ago
she disclosed that Turkmenistan has been "quietly developing into
a major transport hub" for the Northern Distribution Network to
deliver supplies to U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Tynan also revealed:
"The Pentagon has confirmed a small contingent of US military
personnel now operates in Ashgabat [the capital] to assist refueling
operations.
"The United States has a deal in place that allows for the landing
and refueling of transport planes at Ashgabat airport, according
to the US Department of Defense. NATO is also seeking to open a
land corridor for supplies destined for troops in Afghanistan. ..."
She also quoted a spokesman for the Defense Department stating,
"The United States has a small Air Force team, normally around seven
airmen, who assist US aircraft who refuel at Ashgabat Airport...."
[9]
In a recent article the author wrote:
"Despite its long-avowed status as a neutral nation, Turkmenistan
is playing an important supporting role for US and NATO forces
fighting in Afghanistan. Washington and Ashgabat are both keen to
keep Turkmenistans strategic role low-key, especially the financial
aspects of cooperation. "
The country has supplied fuel for American and NATO troops in
Afghanistan, "delivered free of all duties and taxes."
"Fuel is exempt from local duties and taxes due to Turkmenistans
and Azerbaijans participation in the NATO Partnership for Peace
program....Similar arrangements are in place in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan
and Tajikistan.. ..US military aircraft have been using Turkmen
airspace and facilities since at a least 2002, and Ashgabat is a
hub for operations involving C-5 and C-17 transport planes."
A spokeswoman for the Pentagon's Defense Logistics Agency (DLA)
told Tynan the following:
It is DLAs understanding that both Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are
partners in the NATO Partnership for Peace. As partners, they agree
to abide by the terms of the NATO status of forces agreement, which
provides in relevant part that NATO member countries shall make
special arrangements for fuel, oil and lubricants for use by another
member countries military and civilian personnel to be delivered
free of all duties and taxes. [10]
Tajikistan, with China to its east and Afghanistan to its southwest,
has hosted a French air force contingent of at least 200 personnel,
C-160 transport aircraft and Mirage multirole fourth-generation jet
fighters since early 2002.
Last week the nation's state-run railroad disclosed that in 2010
"In keeping with the agreements signed by the Tajik government,
republican railroads delivered over 160 tonnes of commercial cargo,
which was later taken by motor transport to Afghanistan for NATO
needs." [11]
In 2007 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers financed the construction
of a bridge across the Panj River connecting Tajikistan and
Afghanistan.
On January 17 U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South
and Central Asian Affairs Susan Elliott was in Kyrgyzstan to arrange
for resuming bilateral consultations, which were suspended last
year after the second violent overthrow of the government in five
years occurred. [12]
The following week Kazakh Secretary of State Kanat Saudabayev visited
Washington, D.C. for two days. Before meeting with his counterpart
Secretary of State Clinton, he met with Colin Powell, Brent Scowcroft,
Zbigniew Brzezinski, ConocoPhillips Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer James Mulva and Halliburton Energy Services Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer David Lesar.
Clinton and Saudabayev stressed "the importance of timely implementation
of the agreements" between President Barack Obama and Kazakhstan's
President Nursultan Nazarbayev on the sidelines of last April's
Global Summit on Nuclear Safety in Washington. Accords that, according
to Senior Director of Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the National
Security Council Michael McFaul, "will allow troops to fly directly
from the United States over the North Pole to the region." [13]
U.S. and British troops led NATO Partnership for Peace training
exercises, codenamed Steppe Eagle 2010, in Kazakhstan last August
and afterwards Kazakhstan assigned military personnel to NATOs
International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
As Washington and NATO consolidate military-to- military relations
with the five nations of Central Asia, the majority of both Shanghai
Cooperation Organization and Collective Security Treaty Organization
members will be shifted from the Russian and Chinese to the U.S.
column.
Indian analyst and former diplomat M K Bhadrakumar wrote an article
a month after NATO's summit in Lisbon in November in which he stated
that "the alliance is well on the way to transforming into a global
political-military role" and "NATO is by far today the most powerful
military and political alliance in the world."
He added: "The various partnership programs of NATO in Central Asia
and the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Mediterranean regions can
be viewed as part of the overall approach to take recourse to other
states or groups of states to promote the Euro-Atlantic interests
globally."
"From a seemingly reluctant arrival in Afghanistan seven years ago
in an 'out-of-area' operation as part of the UN-mandated ISAF
(International Security Assistance Force), with a limited mandate,
NATO is suo moto stepping out of the ISAF, deepening its presence
and recasting its role and activities on a long-term basis."
"It is within the realm of possibility that NATO would at a future
date deploy components of the US missile defense system in Afghanistan.
Ostensibly directed against the nearby 'rogue states,' the missile
defense system will challenge the Chinese strategic capability."
The current geopolitical reality in Central and South Asia "is very
much linked to NATO's future role in Afghanistan. US strategy toward
an Afghan settlement visualizes the future role for NATO as the
provider of security to the Silk Road that transports the multi-trillion
dollar mineral wealth in Central Asia to the world market via the
Pakistani port of Gwadar."
"The resuscitation of the Silk Road project to construct an oil and
gas pipeline connecting Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and
India (the TAPI pipeline) will need to be seen as much more than a
template of regional cooperation.
"The pipeline signifies a breakthrough in the longstanding Western
efforts to access the fabulous mineral wealth of the Caspian and
Central Asian region. Washington has been the patron saint of the
TAPI concept since the early-1990s when the Taliban was conceived
as its Afghan charioteer."
"On the map, the TAPI pipeline deceptively shows India as its final
destination. What is overlooked, however, is that the route can be
easily extended to the Pakistani port of Gwadar and connected with
European markets, which is the ultimate objective.
"The onus is on each of the transit countries to secure the pipeline.
Part of the Afghan stretch will be buried underground as a safeguard
against attacks and local communities will be paid to guard it. But
then, it goes without saying that Kabul will expect NATO to provide
security cover, which, in turn, necessitates long-term Western
military presence in Afghanistan.
"In sum, TAPI is the finished product of the US invasion of
Afghanistan. It consolidates NATO's political and military presence
in the strategic high plateau that overlooks Russia, Iran, India,
Pakistan and China. TAPI provides a perfect setting for the alliance's
future projection of military power for 'crisis management' in
Central Asia." [14]
Immediately after the signing of the TAPI agreement in the capital
of Turkmenistan by the presidents of that country and Afghanistan
and Pakistan as well as Indian's energy minister, the government
of Hamid Karzai announced that 7,000 Afghan troops - the army is
being trained by the NATO Training Mission - Afghanistan - would
be deployed to guard the pipeline. [15]
Since the end of the Cold War and the demise of the Soviet Union,
Central Asia (with the Caspian Sea Basin on its western flank) has
been the chessboard on which intensified international strategic
positioning has occurred. It may be transformed into a battleground
of conflicting 21st century geopolitical interests.
Notes
1) The Shanghai Cooperation Organization: Prospects For A Multipolar
World Stop NATO, May 21, 2009http://rickrozoff. wordpress. com/2009/
08/29/150 2) Robert O. Blake, Jr., The Obama Administration' s
Priorities in South and Central Asia U.S. State Department, January
19, 2011http://www.state. gov/p/sca/ rls/rmks/ rmks/155002. htm
3) Deirdre Tynan, Uzbekistan: Karimovs Visit to Brussels was NATOs
idea EurasiaNet, January 20, 2011 4) Reuters, December 2, 2010 5)
Trend News Agency, January 13, 2011 6) Trend News Agency, January
15, 2011 7) Hindustan Times, January 17, 2011 8) Central Asia
Newswire, January 26, 2011 9) EurasiaNet, July 8, 2009 10) Deirdre
Tynan, Turkmenistan: Ashgabat Playing Key US/NATO Support Role In
Afghan War EurasiaNet, January 10, 2011http://www.eurasian
et.org/node/ 62683 11) Interfax-Military, January 20, 2011 12)
Kyrgyzstan And The Battle For Central Asia Stop NATO, April 7, 2010http://rickrozoff. wordpress. com/2010/ 04/08/kyrgyzstan -and-the-
battle-for- central-asia 13) Kazakhstan: U.S., NATO Seek Military
Outpost Between Russia And China Stop NATO, April 14, 2010http://rickrozoff. wordpress. com/2010/ 04/15/kazakhstan -u-s-nato-
seek-military- outpost-between- russia-and- china 14) M K Bhadrakumar,
NATO weaves South Asian web Asia Times, December 23, 2010http://www.atimes. com/atimes/ South_Asia/ LL23Df05. html 15) NATO
Trains Afghan Army To Guard Asian Pipeline Stop NATO, December 19,
2010http://rickrozoff. wordpress. com/2010/ 12/19/nato- trains-afghan-
army-to-guard- asian-pipeline
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