NATO chief continues regional tour

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's (NATO) secretary-general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, on Wednesday met the Uzbek president, Islam Karimov, in the country's capital, Tashkent, as he continues his first tour of Central Asia since his appointment last year. "We talked about the collaboration of Uzbekistan in the context of the Partnership for Peace [programme]," a NATO spokeswoman told IRIN from Tashkent, adding that the NATO chief showed his satisfaction with Uzbekistan's participation in the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) aimed, for example, at enhancing peacekeeping forces. On Wednesday evening, the NATO secretary-general is expected to meet Tajik President Emomali Rakhmanov to discuss Tajikistan's role in the international organisation. Scheffer started his first four-day trip on Monday in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, where he met President Askar Akayev and other senior officials. A NATO official told IRIN that the region was very important for the alliance as a logistical base to support its operations in Afghanistan. Following the Istanbul summit in June, NATO agreed on a further expansion of its troops in Afghanistan. Since the deployment has been completed in the northern part of the country, the organisation is planning to expand its troops in western Afghanistan, and to do that, collaboration from Central Asia is crucial. "We face common challenges and the very serious tasks of fighting drugs and terrorism, which can only successfully be fought together," said Scheffer, noting that Kyrgyzstan's Manas airbase had an important role to play in Afghanistan and the rest of the region in terms of security. The NATO head is also discussing with all the Central Asian presidents a number of programmes aimed at combating the opium trade from Afghanistan through the region, the fight against terrorism as well as promoting political dialogue. He is accompanied by NATO's new special representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, Robert Simmons, a former US State Department official. On Tuesday, the NATO secretary-general met Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev to strengthen a series of cooperation frameworks aimed at enhancing cooperation between NATO and Kazakhstan. Scheffer is set to emphasise the importance of a dialogue on democratic standards during his talks with regional leaders, bringing some messages about the importance that NATO attributes to human rights, the rule of law, media freedom and so forth, the NATO official said. The NATO head's regional tour will conclude on Thursday in Central Asia's most reclusive country, Turkmenistan, where he is expected to meet President Saparmurat Niyazov and other senior governmental officials.