Washington -- The United States wants to be an “engine for change” in Central Asia, supporting the development of democratic, stable and prosperous nations and encouraging them to seek new economic opportunities “in every direction on the compass,” said a senior U.S. official in Almaty, Kazakhstan, August 23.

“Kazakhstan and its neighbors are poised to seize unprecedented economic opportunities,” Evan A. Feigenbaum, the deputy assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, told a conference on U.S.-Kazak relations.  “For Central Asia, this promise is best achieved to the degree that governments and peoples think and act as an integrated region.”

Feigenbaum said the United States seeks to assure security in the region, to promote economic change and regional integration, and to promote democratic reform.

In addition to supporting integration among the five Central Asian republics -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – the United States is encouraging a broader integration of the region with Afghanistan and South Asia, according to Feigenbaum.  (See related article.)

“We are promoting options and opportunities omni-directionally, but increasingly to the south -- the least developed direction,” he said. “We want not merely to support economic development along this north-south axis, but also to afford Afghanistan access to a wider world, thus becoming a bridge where once it was a barrier.

“In this vision, the United States wants to be the convener.  A facilitator.  An engine for change,” Feigenbaum said. 

“Of course, Kazakhstan will have a growing role in all of this,” he continued.  “Our two countries share an interest in the free movement of energy, people, goods, and information from the Kazakh steppes to the sea.”

“Our policy is not ‘anti-’ anyone.  Nor is it focused in any single direction to the exclusion of any other,” Feigenbaum said. “Rather, as Secretary [of State Condoleezza] Rice has said, it is to give impetus to a ‘corridor of reform’ extending southward to Afghanistan and the Indian Ocean, even as the region's ties expand eastward to China, Japan, Korea, and the Pacific Rim.”

Feigenbaum added that “while looking for these new opportunities to the south, the United States firmly supports maintaining and expanding Central Asia's robust ties to the Euro-Atlantic community.”

The United States is “deeply committed” to Central Asia and “committed for the long haul,” he said.

Participants at the conference discussed the U.S. role in developing Kazakhstan's energy industry, prospects for supplying oil to the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline, bilateral trade, U.S. support for Kazakhstan's World Trade Organization accession, U.S. investment outside the energy sector, and promotion of security in Central Asia and the Caspian region.

The conference was sponsored by the Institute of World Economy and Policy at the First Kazakhstan President Foundation in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy in Almaty and the AES Corporation. 

The full text of Deputy Assistant Secretary Feigenbaum’s prepared remarks is available on the Web site of the U.S. Embassy in Almaty.