CIAO DATE: 07/2013
May 2013
Danish Institute for International Studies
The declared intention to withdraw from Afghanistan by 2014 raises the problem of how to remove the huge amount of military hardware in a short timeframe. The Central Asian states are going to play an important role in this process. This report examines the perspectives and the planning options in two of the leading states in Central Asia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Among the policy issues explored that are linked to the 2014 drawdown, are the extent to which there may be potential to encourage a regional approach to security, or whether the NATO exit from Afghanistan may result in common policy positions or shared interests among the Central Asian states. Central Asia has played a vital role in Western defence planning policy in relation to Afghanistan ever since Operation Enduring Freedom commenced in 2001 in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. The Western military deployment into Afghanistan was supported at an early stage by agreeing access to military facilities within Central Asia, notably the US military base at Kharshi-Khanabad (K2) in Uzbekistan and the airbase at Manas near Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The Central Asian states have also stepped up their participation in bilateral security assistance programmes and the NATO Partnership for Peace (PfP). The closure of K2 in 2005 meant that Manas airbase became the transit centre through which supplies and troops could be moved into the theater of operations in Afghanistan. The importance of Central Asia continued, not least due to the pressure on the ground lines of communication taking supplies to ISAF from Pakistan and resulted in the establishment of the Northern Distribution Network taking supplies from the Baltic Sea ports over land to through Russia to Afghanistan. Apart from the drawdown of military forces from Afghanistan there are serious considerations of the potential implications for the wider security of Central Asia.
Resource link: Central Asian Security Post-2014: Perspectives in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan [PDF]