CIAO DATE: 07/2010
May 2010
Center for Strategic and International Studies
When Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev met with U.S. president Barack Obama on several occasions during the former’s April 11–14, 2010, visit to Washington, one of the issues the two leaders discussed was the volatile political situation in Kyrgyzstan. They were also joined on at least one occasion by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who was in Washington for the April 12–13 Nuclear Security Summit. The three governments were eager to share assessments about developments in Kyrgyzstan after the April 6–7 civil strife there killed about 80 people and wounded over 1,000. The ensuing chaos led Kazakhstan and other neighboring countries to close their borders with Kyrgyzstan and begin intensive consultations on an appropriate response. Kazakhstan’s role in dealing with the crisis was doubly important due to its considerable influence in Kyrgyzstan and its status as the 2010 chair-in-office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The success of the OSCE in preventing the outbreak of a Kyrgyz civil war and promoting a peaceful resolution after days of civil unrest is attributable to the closeness of Kazakh-Kyrgyz relations as well as Kazakhstan’s close ties with U.S. and Russian leaders. Although a desire to ensure stability in a neighboring country would have motivated a Kazakh response to the crisis in any case, the decision of the Kazakh government to address the crisis primarily through the OSCE was a consequence of Astana’s status as OSCE chair. The chair gave Kazakhstan the mandate to act more prominently and more decisively during the Kyrgyz crisis. It managed to simultaneously promote its own regional security interests as well as bolster the international standing of the OSCE (and of Kazakhstan itself) by using the organization’s diverse tools to help resolve the Kyrgyz crisis in a peaceful manner. The generally successful OSCE response to the crisis has in turn enhanced the prestige of both the organization and the Kazakh government.
Resource link: The OSCE and the 2010 Crisis in Kyrgyzstan [PDF] - 783K