Powell Seeks Deeper U.S. Ties With Central Asian Nations

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, shoring up a new front in U.S. foreign policy, arrived in Uzbekistan on Saturday to lay the foundation for long-term relationships with Central Asian countries neighboring Afghanistan.

The trip to countries that are ruled by authoritarian regimes reflects a major byproduct of the Sept. 11 attacks and the U.S. war on terrorism.

During the weekend, Powell admitted that Central Asian nations had been “something of a backwater for us” since they gained independence from the Soviet Union a decade ago.

But at a news conference with Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who has ruled this country with an iron fist since Soviet times, Powell said that the United States is now interested “in a permanent change for the better in our relationship--that will endure long after this crisis is over.”

The trip here symbolizes the delicate balance that the Bush administration is attempting to strike between the support it needs from Afghanistan’s neighbors for the war on terrorism and the desire to direct U.S. aid and diplomatic backing toward democratic governments.

It hasn’t been easy. The Afghan campaign is increasingly skewing the balance in ways that may well last long after U.S. forces withdraw from the region, U.S. officials concede. Critics call it a devil’s bargain.

Since the military campaign began Oct. 7, Central Asia has been crucial to the U.S. effort. More than 1,000 troops of the Army’s 10th Mountain Division have been deployed to Uzbekistan, which allowed the United States access to a key military base. Kyrgyzstan’s parliament last week approved U.S. use of a second Central Asian base. And Kazakhstan has pledged to make available “all means at its disposal” for the U.S.-led war on terrorism, though it has not said publicly what it is doing.

All three countries were on Powell’s itinerary until bad weather Saturday forced cancellation of the Kyrgyzstan stop.

The price for their support has been high, however: millions in U.S. aid and, more important, effective U.S. endorsement of regimes widely considered to be undemocratic and unpopular among many of their own people.

En route to his first stop--Tashkent, the Uzbek capital--Powell conceded to reporters Friday that the Central Asian governments “are not where we would like them to be yet, far from it.”

In a touching meeting Saturday with Uzbek schoolchildren holding a mock election for student council, Powell pointedly told them that “governments can only be instituted by the consent of the governed. There can be no democracy, it doesn’t exist, it has no meaning, unless you can get the consent of the governed. And the way you capture the voice of the governed is through the vote.”

Yet in the joint news conference later Saturday, Powell said the U.S. is looking forward to “deepening and widening” its relationship with Karimov’s government--after thanking him for Uzbekistan’s “important role” in the U.S.-led coalition to fight terrorism.

Powell then announced that he was carrying an invitation from President Bush to the Uzbek leader--who has outlawed serious opposition and imprisoned thousands of religious and political activists, according to human rights groups--to visit the White House in the near future.

The U.S. also has pledged about $100 million in aid to Uzbekistan and $80 million for Kazakhstan. It has engaged in lucrative commercial deals with its new Central Asian partners, including a recent $6-million purchase of wheat to be shipped to Afghanistan.

The Bush administration argues that the war in Afghanistan produced not a policy shift but a new diplomatic opportunity. Now the U.S. can help pull the five former Soviet republics in Central Asia into the West’s orbit, even though four of them are still led by the same men who ruled when their republics were part of the Soviet Union.

“The key here is not to just say thank you for the use of your base and we’re out of here, but to use the opening for other purposes of liberalization, democracy, putting their economies on a sounder basis,” Powell told reporters. “We’ve been rather candid with them about the nature of their political processes.”

But it’s unclear whether the diplomatic shift will produce opportunity--or a trap. Each new step appears to exact a cost, which was evident again Saturday.

Since the Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif fell to anti-Taliban forces last month, the U.S. has been pressing Uzbekistan to open the Friendship Bridge on the nearby border so that aid can be transported on the only land link to mountainous northern Afghanistan before winter sets in, threatening millions of Afghans.

But it took Powell’s presence and prodding to wring a formal announcement out of Karimov that the bridge will be opened today, after one last technical check. Hours after Powell left, however, Uzbek sources were hinting that it might not happen that soon.