<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.timesonline.co.uk\/article\/0,,3-2486978,00.html<\/p>\n
Borat\u2019s nation seeks leading role in Europe David Chater, Brussels<\/p>\n
Kazakhstan in bid to chair OSCE Backing in EU for supplier of energy<\/p>\n
An audacious attempt by Borat\u2019s home country to win the chairmanship of an international body that champions free elections and human rights has left Britain and America in a real-life dispute with much of Europe. Kazakhstan, the Central Asian republic lampooned in Sacha Baron Cohen\u2019s film, is seeking support for its bid to chair the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in 2009.<\/p>\n
The bid is backed by many European states, including France, which highlights Kazakhstan\u2019s strategic importance as an alternative to Russia as a supplier of energy to the EU. Kazakhstan holds, potentially, a quarter of the future energy needs of the EU in largely undeveloped reserves.<\/p>\n
However, at a two-day OSCE summit in Brussels yesterday, Britain and the US made it clear that they believe the country is not yet ready to lead the organisation of European and Central Asian states.<\/p>\n
The OSCE criticised last year\u2019s elections in Kazakhstan \u2014 in which Nursultan Nazarbayev, the President since the country won independence from Russia in
\n1991, won 91 per cent of the vote.<\/p>\n
Yesterday in Brussels Mr Nazarbayev told foreign ministers, including Geoff Hoon, teyh British Europe Minister, that his country deserved to become the first from its troubled region to chair the 56-member OSCE.<\/p>\n
He said that his country had made progress in modernising its economy and liberalising society. \u201cWe have been a fully fledged member of this organisation since 1997 and we have achieved impressive results in economic success and the liberalisation of society which have been recognised in the world,\u201d he said. \u201cIn a world full of war and bloodshed based on religious reasons, Kazakhstan enjoys peace and co-existence between a population of
\n130 nationalities and<\/p>\n
46 religions. I think it is a very valuable experience that might be shared by the OSCE.\u201d<\/p>\n
British officials, however, pointed to the harassment of journalists and opposition politicians as well as a recent police raid on a Hare Krishna community as reasons why Kazakhstan was not yet ready. The Hare Krishna raid was criticised by the OSCE. Only last month a spokesman said: \u201cThe advisory council expresses deep concern about the news of demolition of the houses belonging to the Hare Krishna community and calls on the Kazakh authorities to stop further demolition work and provide humanitarian aid to those citizens whose houses have been destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n
One British source said: \u201cIn future we are in favour of a Central Asian chair of the OSCE but obviously any chair of the organisation has got to exemplify the principles and commitments of the OSCE.\u201d<\/p>\n
The decision requires unanimous consent and under a compromise put forward by the US Kazakhstan would be given the chairmanship for 2011 with a series of benchmarks for further internal reforms. But this is meeting stiff resistance from Mr Nazarbayev. Standing next to Jos\u00e9 Manuel Barroso, the European Commission President, Mr Nazarbayev yesterday even claimed the support of the whole EU for his case, saying: \u201cWe appreciate the support of the EU to the bid by Kazakhstan to become chairman of the OSCE in 2009.\u201d<\/p>\n
This forced Mr Barroso to make a rather awkward clarification.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe European Commission has no position in that matter,\u201d he said, trying to laugh off the correction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An audacious attempt by Borat\u2019s home country to win the chairmanship of an international body that champions free elections and human rights has left Britain and America in a real-life dispute with much of Europe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-iskcon-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Hare](\"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/timeshgo_1.jpg\")
By Times<\/strong><\/p>\n