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A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

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Independent Central Asian Republics 287<br />

invasion of Afghanistan; today, Russia’s troops guard the same frontier<br />

but within an entirely different and unexpected context.<br />

The newly established international profile of the Central Asian<br />

republics is forcefully reflected in their relations with the United States.<br />

Diplomatic representation is only one part of the multifaceted and lively<br />

contacts; American business, academe, and foundations pursue the<br />

newly found opportunities for self-interest, research, and altruistic help<br />

abounding in this part of the world that was previously all but inaccessible<br />

to them.Moreover, the presence of the United Nations<br />

Organization in New York adds a further and unique dimension to<br />

Central Asian–American relations.<br />

One of the riches of Central Asia is mineral wealth, and American<br />

companies have entered the competitive arena of developing its exploitation.The<br />

oil of Kazakhstan and natural gas of Turkmenistan lead this<br />

roster.The Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev signed in March<br />

1993, during one of his visits to Washington, a contract with the<br />

Chevron Oil Company to develop the oilfields of Tengiz in the Caspian<br />

confines of western Kazakhstan; James Baker, the former Secretary of<br />

State in the Bush administration, was one of the business leaders who at<br />

about the same time went to Turkmenistan to negotiate contracts with<br />

Saparmurad Niyazov, that republic’s President, aiming at developing the<br />

especially rich gas deposits of Nebit Dag.While both Kazakhstan and<br />

Turkmenistan (and, across the Caspian, Azerbaijan) have already<br />

benefited from their deposits of oil and natural gas, it is no more than a<br />

preview of the expected boom.For reasons of both technology and<br />

policy, only their surface, literally and figuratively, had been “scratched”<br />

in the Tsarist and Soviet periods.The technology of their exploitation<br />

lagged far behind that applied by the industrial West; and Moscow preferred<br />

to give priority to developing deposits in territories more safely<br />

under its control, primarily those of the Russian Federation.On the<br />

other hand, the promising potential of the Caspian basin suffers from a<br />

serious drawback: the lack of direct access to adequate ports from which<br />

to export oil and natural gas to Europe, America, or Japan.In order to<br />

do so, construction of long and costly pipelines will be necessary, but still<br />

more problematic may be the fact that these conduits will have to pass<br />

through other countries and thus remain at the mercy of their governments’<br />

whims and demands (and even of world powers across the<br />

oceans).<br />

A plan to build a pipeline through Turkmenistan to a Mediterranean

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