Kyrgyzstan and NATO have signed an agreement on the transit of land cargo through Kyrgyzstan’s territory for NATO’s International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) in Afghanistan. The agreement was signed by the Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Ruslan Kazakbaev and the NATO Deputy Secretary General Ambassador Alexander Vershbow during the NATO Summit in Chicago on May 22. While signing the document, Kazakbaev said that Kyrgyzstan will continue to support the international community and regional and international organizations, including NATO, in the efforts to ensure security, peace and stability and further socio-economic development of Afghanistan.

It is notable that the leaders of the Central Asian states including Kyrgyzstan were invited to the NATO summit. As NATO press attaché Ben Nimmo said, the organization shares a common interest in strengthening stability and security in Afghanistan with the Central Asian states and claimed that these states greatly contribute to ISAF’s mission by facilitating transit to and from Afghanistan. The NATO official expressed his hope that the region’s states will take a more active role in assisting development in Afghanistan after 2014. 

During his speech at the summit, Kazakbaev emphasized the importance of achieving stability and security in Afghanistan and the development of regional cooperation including regional trade and transit, increase of foreign investments and development of regional infrastructure. The minister stated that Kyrgyzstan is more than willing to take an active role in these processes.

It should be noted that prior to the agreement, Kyrgyz and Tajik truck drivers have already been transporting NATO's cargo through the territories of these countries to Afghanistan. According to Temirbek Shabdanaliev, chairman of the Association of Carriers of Kyrgyzstan, around 350 Kyrgyz truck drivers are involved in the transportation of cargo for the international coalition forces. Shabdanaliev said that despite the involvement of Kyrgyz truck drivers in this project, their interests were not met in the new agreement. He added that foreign drivers have become engaged in the cargo transit during the last couple of weeks. “If the agreement will give cargo transit permission to foreigners, the local drivers might organize protests because of unfair competition,” Shabdanaliev warned.

In the meantime, dozens of foreign trucks carrying food supplies for the international forces in Afghanistan got stuck at the Karamyk border post on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border. Kyrgyz Parliament member Tokon Mamytov explained that this border post is bilateral and, according to the agreement between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, only drivers from the abovementioned countries can pass through the checkpoint. According to the Kyrgyz Border Service chairman Zakir Tilenov, Bishkek plans to raise the issue of granting the checkpoint international status at the next Kyrgyz-Tajik intergovernmental commission's session in June 2012.

Besides the summit and signing the cargo transit agreement, the Kyrgyz Foreign Minister also met with U.S. high officials. At the meeting with Robert Blake, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Kazakbaev offered to discuss the signing of a free trade agreement between Kyrgyzstan and the U.S.. Blake agreed to discuss this issue within the framework of the bilateral agreement on trade and investments. Furthermore, during the meeting with Janice Jacobs, the Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs, the two sides discussed the Kyrgyz side’s proposal to prolong the visa duration for Kyrgyz tourists, students and businessmen up to five years. The U.S. diplomat assured that the proposal will be carefully considered by the U.S. State Department.

Some local experts view Kyrgyzstan’s agreement on the cargo transit and attempt to become actively involved in the efforts to assist Afghanistan after the 2014 withdrawal of NATO troops as an attempt to gain as many economic and political benefits as possible. As political expert Marat Kazakbaev noted, this transit agreement will provide the state budget with additional revenue at the expense of cargo being carried through the country's territory. However, according Kazakbaev, this “awakening” of cooperation between the Kyrgyzstan and the west, especially the U.S., will not influence Bishkek's determination to withdraw the U.S. airbase from the country. It has to be noted that Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev, commenting on the results of the NATO Summit, said that Kyrgyzstan will continue assisting Afghanistan’s restoration process, including transit of non-military goods through its territory. However, no U.S. military base will be present in the country after 2014.

At the same time, most analysts claim that it is too early to say that the airbase will be withdrawn, as these negotiations have just started and no one knows how they will turn out.