Visit of Madeleine Albright as the Most Important Event for the Central Asian States During the Last Decade

The visit to Uzbekistan of Madeleine Albright, the Secretary of State of the USA, became an outstanding event in the political life of the republic. All Uzbek mass media presented detailed information about the visit in their typical manner, i.e. in most general expressions, covering both the visit progress and its objectives. There was not provided any information about the specific details of the meetings and negotiations held in Tashkent.

On arriving in Tashkent, on April 16, Ms. Albright on the same day met with the minister of foreign affairs of Uzbekistan Abdulaziz Komilov. They discussed "the issues of the further development of the long-term political, economic, and cultural cooperation between the two countries." Certainly, they have also covered the problems of the security and stability in the region.

Later on the Secretary of State of the USA made a speech in front of the students and professors of the Tashkent University of World Economy and Diplomacy. According to newspapers, Uzbekistan was promised to get all kinds of assistance and support in solving the problems of security and stability in the region. By this there was understood not only psychological support, but also financial aid: Mrs.Albright announced that the USA was ready to assign 10 mln. dollars for the purpose of preserving peace and stability in the region. As highlighted an announcer of the first channel of the Uzbek radio, "when we talk about the Uzbek-American cooperation, we should take into consideration that the both countries step by step increase their cooperation with regard to struggle against the threats to the regional and international security, against the religious extremism and international terrorism as well as against some other forces putting obstacles to the social development." During all the meetings and negotiations in Uzbekistan, the Secretary of State of the USA was accompanied by Abdulaziz Komilov, the minister of foreign affairs of Uzbekistan, by Joseph Presel, the USA ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary in Uzbekistan, and by Sodiq Safoyev, the ambassador of Uzbekistan in the USA.

After her visit to the Tashkent University of World Economy and Diplomacy, the Secretary of State of the USA left for Samarkand. During her visit to Samarkand, according to the press, Madeleine Albright got acquainted with the activities of "Sabr" center that dealt with the problems of strengthening families and increasing public activities of women. Besides, the guest visited the centers of folk applied arts "Meros" and "Usto." In Bukhara, where to she went immediately after her visit to Samarkand, she prayed in a Jewish synagogue. After that, she said that she "prayed in the synagogue asking the God for peace for people all over the world, and then she lighted a candle." "I am, - Madeleine Albright said, - very glad that in Uzbekistan they pay equal attention to all the religions and fully guarantee freedom of worship. With this regard, Uzbekistan could be named as a sample to be followed by other countries of the world."

Then, the Secretary of State of the USA came back to Tashkent, where on April 18 there was held the main meeting of her visit – the meeting with Islam Karimov, the President of Uzbekistan. Islam Karimov underlined that the present visit of the Secretary of State of the USA was the second one after the visit of James Baker that took place eight years ago. The President of Uzbekistan highlighted that the present visit was of great historical importance, and that it was obvious that the USA showed their interest in Uzbekistan. Then there took place the exchange of opinions on a wide range of issues regarding Uzbek-American cooperation. Again, one of the main topics of the meeting was the issue of regional security and cooperation in resistance to the international terrorism and transit of drugs through the territory of Uzbekistan.

On the last day of her visit to Uzbekistan the Secretary of State of the USA visited some other arrangements. Thus, she participated in the ceremony of opening of the Tashkent Women’s Health Center established with assistance of the American International Health Association (AIHA). She also visited Tashkent Customs College. Besides, she visited the Board of Muslims of Uzbekistan where she had a meeting with the mufti Abdurashid Bakhramov.

However, the visit’s assessments made by some representatives of Russian mass media differ from those of the Uzbek press. Thus, the correspondent of "Trud" newspaper, Valery Biryukov, writes that the results of the visit "slightly differed from those initially planned by the oversees diplomats. Presidents Nursultan Nazarbaev, Askar Akaev, and Islam Karimov met with understanding the wish to assist them with fortification of the external borders, with struggle against spread of drugs as well as against religious extremism and terrorism. However, they in a rather tough manner stopped the attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of their countries. Thus, in response to the statement of Albright that in Kazakhstan there had been rehabilitated and re-appointed on high state posts the officials that were directly involved in illegal sale of military aircraft-fighters to the Northern Korea, President Nazarbaev said in a strict manner: "The Secretary of State of the USA is not the person who is supposed to decide who should be appointed in Kazakhstan and to which posts." President of Kyrgyzstan took rather similar stand, when Albright "requested" to discharge from imprisonment Felix Kulov, the leader of the opposition. She was told that Kyrgyzstan was a democratic country, and that the fate of that prisoner would be decided by the court. In Uzbekistan M.Albright in her speech in the University of World Economy and Diplomacy complained of «unscrupulousness» of the government censorship and "repression against peaceful "Muslims" practicing their religion." The head of the American diplomatic agency considered it to be appropriate to share her opinions about the agricultural reforms. Thus, in particular she said that it was fruitless to give farmers the right to become owners of the land, if the government kept telling them which crops they had to plant, and if the government kept attaching the farmers’ production to the fixed order system. During the press-conference in Tashkent, Albright mentioned that during the negotiations with the government she insisted on distinguishing clearly those who were just religious from those who were the actual fundamentalist-extremists. In response to this A.Komilov, the minister of foreign affairs, mentioned that Muslims made up 80% of the population of the country, and when somebody said that they were prosecuted, that could mean that the whole nation was prosecuted; that would be nonsense."

The visit of the Secretary of State of the USA Madeleine Albrihgt may be assessed in different ways. However, undoubtedly it became one of the most important foreign policy events for the country in the nineties. The history of visits of the USA high rank politicians to Uzbekistan is not big: within the eight-year period starting from the visit of James Baker in 1992 the country was visited by about 20 various delegations that consisted of politicians of relatively high or rather high rank. Thus, every year on average there were held 2.5 visits. As for the last two years, Uzbekistan was visited twice by the delegations headed by the Special Advisor of the Secretary of State of the USA on SIC Stiven Sestanovitch and also by the Commander-in-Chief of the Central Command of the USA Armed Forces Anthony Zinny.

The time schedule of the current voyage of Madeleine Albright to the Central Asian countries was allocated between Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan very unevenly (thus, in Kazakhstan the Secretary of State spent only one day, and in Kyrgyzstan she spent only a few hours). Taking into consideration this fact, it is possible to conclude that the USA views Uzbekistan as the main partner in its geo-political game in the Central-Asian area of the former Soviet Union.

Whereas, for Uzbekistan to make the choice of its political future means to select its strategic partner out of the following two candidatures: its nearest neighbor – unpredictable and still rather powerful Russia where despite the political changes of the last decade there still exists a strong imperial mood, and the United States that are situated much more far away, but which, however, are very attractive due to their military-political force and economic power. There are many indications that are evidence of the fact that while trying as far as possible not to excite the "Russian Bear," Uzbekistan has made its choice in favor of the USA.