Uzbekistan: Tashkent Throws a Diplomatic Curveball to Washington

If Uzbekistan has its way, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be paying a visit to Tashkent in the not so distant future.

No specific date has yet been set for the secretary of state's proposed trip to the Uzbek capital. The visit would take place under the auspices of an action plan authorized by Uzbek President Islam Karimov on January 11. The framework document is the product of US-Uzbek political consultations held in Washington late last year, according to a report distributed by the Gazeta.uz news website January 28. The action plan envisions Clinton's visit as taking place before the summer.

Uzbek news reports on the approval of the Action Plan appeared to come as a surprise to US officials. The US Embassy in Tashkent was quick to downplay expectations of a Clinton visit. Uzbekistan is one of Central Asia's most repressive states, but it is also a country that Washington does not want to upset, given Tashkent's growing strategic importance as a conduit for supplies heading to Afghanistan.

"Naturally part of this [diplomatic] process will involve meetings and contact with Uzbek officials and our goal and hope is to gradually ramp up that level of engagement. Right now we don't have any specifics on who will engage at what level or at what day," the US envoy to Uzbekistan, Richard Norland, said during a January 28 news conference.

"The fact that a work plan has been approved by the presidential authority gives it tremendous weight. But who will meet who and when, and on what date, has not been decided," he emphasized.

According to the action plan, Clinton's visit would spearhead a flurry of diplomatic exchanges in 2010, reportedly including a visit by Richard Holbrooke, Washington's Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, to Tashkent in February.

Over the past year, Uzbekistan has developed into a lynchpin of the Northern Distribution Network (NDN), a US supply line that funnels arms and equipment to American and NATO troops in Afghanistan. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. In return for its strategic cooperation on NDN, Uzbek leaders appear intent on gaining both economic, political and strategic benefits. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

The Uzbek Action Plan focuses largely on security issues and makes it clear that Uzbekistan expects to receive arms and military training from the United States, as well as assistance with border security and counter-terrorism measures.

The document envisions, for example, a "visit of a special working group of the State Department and Defense Department with the aim of determining the needs of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Uzbekistan in specific types of military equipment and supplies, [and] the organization of their delivery within the framework of [two] programs -- Foreign Military Financing (FMF) and Excess Defense Articles (EDA)," the document states. EDA allows the US military to give surplus hardware and fixed assets to foreign governments.

An Uzbek representative would be seconded to CENTCOM headquarters in Florida by March and Uzbek officers would be sent to military schools and training facilities in the United States during the first half of the year, it adds.

The head of the State Department's Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Daniel Benjamin, would be expected to visit Uzbekistan in the latter part of the year to "to discuss issues of bilateral cooperation."

The Uzbek Ministry of Defense, National Security Service and Interior Ministry and their American counterparts would also "exchange information about threats and measures to prevent them related to the transit of non-military goods through the Northern Distribution [Network] to Afghanistan."

The Action Plan states that Uzbekistan will "insist on high level participation in the political consultations from the American side - experts from the State Department, National Security Council and other US government agencies, as well as their constructive approach and a positive attitude on all issues of bilateral relations with Uzbekistan."

Not all points in the action plan pertain to security issues. For example, the blueprint calls for an expansion of bilateral cooperation on public health issues during the first quarter of 2010. The blueprint would also seek improved access to trade opportunities via the cancellation of provisions of the Jackson-Vanik amendment that apply to Tashkent.