UNIPATH STAFF
As the coalition adjusts its military footprint in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan has stepped up to help ensure stability in Central Asia by contributing to the development of countries in the region. By providing food, humanitarian assistance, and financing for infrastructure projects in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan aims to solidify regional security.
“We believe this is a tangible contribution of our government to Afghan stabilization efforts in the international community,” said Kariat Umarov, Kazakhstan’s ambassador to the United States.
Nearly 1,000 Afghan students have studied medical sciences, business management, engineering, agriculture and other specialties at Kazakh universities, thanks to a $50 million scholarship from the Kazakh government. Umarov said the investment has been a bet on Afghanistan’s — and the region’s — future.
“We believe that education and capacity building will boost development and thus contribute to improving the security situation in Afghanistan,” Umarov said.
More recently, Kazakhstan hosted Syria peace talks in its capital, Astana, in February 2017. After a first round of talks in January ended without a breakthrough, the country planned to host another round of dicussions.
Galymzhan Kirbassov, a lecturer at Columbia University, said troop withdrawals in Afghanistan will affect security in other Central Asian countries.
“Some terrorist groups that operated in Afghanistan … are highly likely to move back again,” he said. “Radical groups will finance their activities through smuggling drugs through northern neighbors.”
At the same time, Kazakhstan has taken a pragmatic approach to ensuring its own security, modernizing its Armed Forces to ensure they are “ready to face contemporary security challenges,” Umarov said.
“Kazakhstan regularly holds Steppe Eagle international military exercises and organizes international exhibitions of weapons systems, which helps to build new partnerships,” he said. “As a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization and participant of the NATO Partnership for Peace program, Kazakhstan has a broad scope of international partners in the area of hard security.”
Sources: Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Edge