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Kazakhstan for tie-up with India in IT, oil and gas sectors
By Atul Aneja
NEW DELHI, FEB.11. The Kazakhstan President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, arrived here this evening to push tie-ups with India in the oil and gas sector and information technology and determine ways to accelerate the global campaign against terrorism.
Mr. Nazarbayev arrives here at a time when the war against terrorism has fundamentally altered political equations in Central Asia.
After remaining on the margins for over a decade, the United States is fast emerging as a major player in the region. The U.S. has already established a military base in the neighbouring Kyrghyzstan and acquired a high profile in Uzbekistan.
The assertion of U.S. authority in this area has caused concern both in China and Russia in the Central Asian periphery. Russia has traditionally been a dominant player in this region while China had recently emerged as a heavy-weight there. In fact, prior to September 11, China and Russia were actively engaging most of the Central Asian republics, including Kazakhstan that were apprehensive about a Taliban spill-over from neighbouring Afghanistan on to their territory. Russia and China, in fact, were co-founders of the Shanghai-5, a grouping involving most of the regional states that had security and economic cooperation, including counter-terrorism as part of its agenda.
Moscow and Beijing have also been looking at drawing landlocked Kazakhstan's large oil and gas resources to their countries. Russia already obtains oil supplies from Kazakhstan while China is planning construction of a $9 billion pipeline from there.
After years of frustration, India is now determined to find access to Kazakhstan's hydrocarbon wealth. During the talks on Tuesday, India is expected to emphasise the need for finding a presence in Kazakhstan's proven oil reserve that is not in the disputed Caspian Sea area. While concrete discussions are yet to take place, New Delhi is also exploring the possibility of establishing a link line towards India, in the Ladakh region from the main Kazakh-China pipeline. The proposed pipeline will pass through Western China's Xinjiang province that also borders India. India had earlier unsuccessfully looked at Kazakhstan's Pavlodar region for joint forays in the hydrocarbon sector.
Keen to promote trade, India is likely to discuss with Kazakhstan the proposed North-South transit corridor. India, Iran and Russia plan to jointly develop a transit corridor that can carry goods form their countries into Europe. Other countries including Kazakhstan have also been invited to participate.
Besides, India is looking at military cooperation with Kazakhstan which has large stocks of former Soviet equipment and wants to modernise its defence establishment.
Kazakhstan, on its part, is keen to tie-up with India in the information technology sector. That explains Mr. Nazarbayev's visit to Bangalore during his stay in India.
On the political front, both sides are expected to discuss India's possible participation in an expanded Shanghai cooperation grouping. The Shanghai group is likely to draw new membership rules in a meeting in St. Petersburg in June. Mr. Nazarbayev's presence here follows recent visits to India by the Chinese Premier, Zhu Rongji, and the Russian Foreign Minister, Igor Ivanov.
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