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Border security high on Russia's agenda
By Sergei Blagov
MOSCOW - In the wake of the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization summit in Russia, the Kremlin dispatched
top security officials to some SCO states. Presumably,
security concerns still dominate the agenda of the SCO,
formerly known as the "Shanghai Five", the group that
pledged to build confidence along the border between
China and the former Soviet empire. Notably, the head of
Russia's main security agency traveled to Kazakhstan,
reportedly to urge Russia's SCO partner to join it in
combating terrorism and the trafficking of drugs and
radioactive materials.
Afghanistan's instability
still poses a threat to Central Asian states, Nikolai
Patrushev, the head of Russia's Federal Security Service
(FSB), warned in the Kazakh capital Astana last
Wednesday, according to the Russian Information Agency
(RIA). The FSB is the main successor agency of the
Soviet-era KGB.
Patrushev held talks with his
Kazakh counterpart Nartai Dutbayev, the head of the
country's national security committee (KNB), on efforts
to combat threats to the national security of Russia and
Kazakhstan. The two security agencies discussed ways of
fighting terrorism and extremism as well as "other
possible threats to national security of Russia and
Kazakhstan", RIA quoted the KNB's statement.
They also discussed ways of better guarding
"transparent" borders in order to forestall the
trafficking of drugs, "nuclear and radioactive"
materials and illegal migrants, the statement said.
Patrushev also pledged to train Kazakh security officers
in Russian academies.
The SCO, which includes
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as
well as China and Russia, held a summit on June 7 in St
Petersburg. The summit approved the SCO Charter, and an
agreement on an anti-terrorist center in Bishkek,
Kyrgyzstan.
Russia's hosting the SCO summit
presumably indicated that the Kremlin wanted more say in
regional affairs. As leaders of Russia, China and four
Central Asian nations approved the grouping's charter,
the move also came as a sign of shared security
concerns.
The SCO itself came about as an
attempt to boost collective security and undertake
confidence-building measures. In 1997, Russia and China
signed a treaty along with the former Soviet states of
Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan on significant
reduction of border troops.
However, the SCO has
been keen to have a say on global issues. The SCO summit
hailed the recent US-Russia strategic arms reduction
treaty and advocated a nuclear-free-zone status for
Central Asia, according to the SCO joint declaration.
Incidentally, on Thursday China and Russia
submitted a joint proposal to the Conference on
Disarmament in Geneva for a new international treaty to
ban weapons in space. Earlier in June, the United States
withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and
Washington has been skeptical over a weapons-free-space
plan.
In the meantime, Russia and China are
increasingly engaged in bilateral exchanges on
non-strategic security issues. Notably, on June 24-28
Russian Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov traveled to
China and Mongolia. In Beijing, Gryzlov met China's top
security officials, including Public Security Minister
Jia Chunwang, RIA reported.
On Wednesday, the
Russian Interior Ministry said in a statement that
Gryzlov's mission to Beijing was a "success". In
practical terms, the two ministries created a working
group to deal with security problems such as illegal
migration and smuggling.
Moreover, in recent
months Russian and Chinese security officials have
seemed to be in regular communication. For instance,
Gryzlov and Jia Chunwang met in Moscow just a month ago,
reportedly to discuss a joint fight against terrorism,
the drug trade and illegal migration. Last November,
Gryzlov and Jia signed a formal bilateral cooperation
accord between the two security agencies.
Yet
apart from discussions on non-strategic security issues,
the SCO leaders have been keen to claim that the SCO is
not a closed institution. Notably, Russian officials
have argued that the new organization is opened to all
potential applicants, including Mongolia, and probably
India. So far there have been no new applications to
join the SCO.
Presumably aiming at strengthening
a new partnership with Mongolia, which shares a
3,500-kilometer border with Russia, in Gryzlov met with
Mongolian Prime Minister Nambaryn Enhbayar and
parliament Speaker Tumur-Ochir in Ulan Bator. On Friday,
Gryzlov announced that his trip served to achieve
"complete mutual understanding" between the security
agencies of the two nations. RIA reported that Gryzlov
also tentatively supported a Mongolian initiative to set
up more crossing points along the border so as to
encourage bilateral trade. The Russian minister also
pledged to grant technical assistance to the police
academy in Ulan Bator.
There have also been
calls for collective law-enforcement action by the
former Soviet nations, notably in Central Asia. For
instance, on Thursday heads of financial investigation
agencies of the post-Soviet states met in Cholpon-Ata,
Kyrgyzstan. Russia's tax police chief Mikhail Fradkov
told the gathering that a joint database was needed to
combat economic crime and money-laundering.
However, once-tranquil Kyrgyzstan now seems a
somewhat unlikely venue for law-enforcement and security
initiatives. These days Kyrgyzstan experiences political
upheavals, including unprecedented public protests.
There were other worrying incidents as well.
Notably, on Sunday it was announced in the Kyrgyz
capital that Wan Tengping, the first secretary of the
Chinese Embassy, was shot and killed in downtown
Bishkek. RIA quoted Kyrgyz law-enforcement agencies as
stating that "Uighur separatists" might be implicated in
the attack.
It has been understood that one of
the main stimuli for Beijing to back the creation of the
SCO was a perceived threat of Islamic separatism,
notably due to outbreaks of unrest among the Muslim
Uighur minority - a Turkic-speaking group in China's
westernmost Xinjiang region that borders Central Asia,
Afghanistan and Pakistan.
It remains a matter of
further investigation whether Uighur separatists were
behind the murder of the Chinese diplomat in Bishkek.
Yet the attack, as well as domestic volatility in
Kyrgyzstan, arguably indicate that the SCO's security
and anti-terrorist center in Bishkek is unlikely to face
a shortage of business.
(©2002 Asia Times Online
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