To All:
Al Gore is on the case.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Seeking to forge closer relations with another energy-rich Caspian Sea nation, Vice President Al Gore met Monday with the president of Kazakstan.
President Nursultan Nazarbayev, whose central Asian nation hosted Hillary Rodham Clinton last week, sees President Clinton Tuesday.
Clinton sent a memo to the secretaries of state and energy, approving a cooperative agreement with Kazakstan to improve the safety of its nuclear reactors and find peaceful, civilian uses for its existing infrastructure.
In the directive, Clinton said he had determined ''that the performance of the agreement will promote, and will not constitute an unreasonable risk to, the common defense and security.'' Gore and Nazarbayev were to make the agreement official by signing it in State Department ceremonies on Tuesday.
Nazarbayev will be the third head of state from the region to meet Clinton in four months, following President Edouard Shevardnadze of Georgia and President Gaidar Aleyev of Azerbaijan.
The United States is trying to encourage development of democratic institutions in these former Soviet republics and tie their economies to the West without upsetting the Russians. Oil reserves in the Caspian are believed to be second only to those of the Persian Gulf.
Nazarbayev also met with Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre.
The U.S.-Kazakstan Joint Commission, which Gore and Nazarbayev chair, fosters cooperation between the two nations on economic and foreign policy, trade and investment, nonproliferation, environmental protection, science and technology and energy.
It is one of three such groups Gore co-chairs. The other two are with South Africa and Ukraine.
AP-NY-11-17-97 2229EST
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(Includes Nazarbayev Pentagon visit, pipeline comments)
WASHINGTON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Al Gore called for multiple pipelines to export Caspian oil reserves but steered clear of the thorny question of Iran as he greeted Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Monday.
Opening a two-day session of a Kazakhstan-U.S. joint commission, Gore said the development of Central Asia's vast oil and gas resources would be discussed at length.
"These resources will be a critical engine for Kazakhstan's future prosperity and if developed properly can help promote regional stability," Gore said.
"The United States strongly supports a policy of rapid energy development and multiple transport routes for the Caspian region, with a particular interest in (an) East-West transportation corridor linking the states of Central Asia and the Caucasus to Europe and to East Asia," he added.
Gore made no direct reference to Iran, which has emerged as a key problem in the energy politics of the region.
But Nazarbayev later admitted at a Pentagon news conference with U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen that Kazakhstan might have to discuss military security for any pipeline that might go south through Iran or Iraq.
"I think if we decide to put the pipeline through Iran or Iraq, then I would have to talk about security," he said.
Rich in oil and gas but landlocked, the former Soviet republics of Central Asia look south to Iran as the shortest route to growing Asian markets, and as a way of ending decades of reliance on Russian pipelines.
But while Washington supports the goal of diversification away from Russia, U.S. sanctions against Iran, imposed because of Tehran's alleged sponsorship of terrorist groups, are blocking that potential export route.
Under the 1996 Iran Libya Sanctions Act, U.S. President Bill Clinton can penalize non-U.S. firms that invest $20 million a year or more in the two countries' energy sector.
The commercial highlight of Nazarbayev's visit will be a production sharing agreement for Kazakhstan's Karachaganak gas field, which the Kazakh government will sign with U.S.-owned Texaco Inc <TX.N>, British Gas <BG.L> and Italy's Agip SpA <AGIS.CN>.
The joint commission, grouping ministers or senior officials of the two governments, will discuss defense and non-proliferation issues as well as economic cooperation.
Gore said, following its work, he and Nazarbayev would sign an "action program on economic partnership" aimed at promoting free market reforms in Kazakhstan's formerly centralized economy.
At the Defense Department, Nazarbayev and Cohen signed an agreement to improve military-to-military cooperation between the two countries. The steps will include increased exchanges of officers and U.S. aid in training a professional non-commissioned officers' corps for Kazakhstan's forces.
REUTERS
21:08 11-17-97 |
