Kazakhstan Denies Granting US Access to Caspian Sea

Washington’s access to the Kazakh railroad for easier links to Afghanistan, where tens of thousands of the American and the allied NATO troops have been operating since 2001, shows the US has intensified its activity in Central Asia.

Replacing Kazakhstan with Pakistan as a supply line

The new US activities in the Central Asian state comes as many analysts note that the move is not disconnected from the past year’s US tensions with Pakistan, which once was a partner to Washington in Afghanistan.

Over 90 percent of the US equipments to the battlegrounds in the war-hit nation are transported via the Pakistani territories. But Washington and Islamabad saw chilly relationship after Trump assumed the power in the US in January 2017. Now, the US administration appears to seek a replacement for Pakistan as a route for the US military supply convoys going to the front lines.

The tensions between the two countries sparked when Trump announced a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan. He accused Islamabad of supporting the terrorism in Afghanistan. The Pakistani leaders went furious at the accusations, threatening to close the way of the US military supplies. Ever since, the chill did not show any sign of relaxation, pushing the White House officials to think another supply route as an alternative to Pakistan.

Central Asia without Russia

The US access to the Kazakh railroad system can also be viewed aside from the Afghanistan campaign and mainly linked to the Washington objectives in Central Asia. The US military deployment to Kazakhstan, many agree, opens a new round of the US activities in Central Asia, which has always been a marked region in the foreign policy of all US administrations.

The main focus came after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Since then, the Americans have made efforts to shape a region without the Russian presence. The administrations tried to lose no opportunity to realize this goal as they thought it will offer them an upper hand against their rival Moscow geopolitically.

Washington’s strategy in rivalry with Moscow has been to get a toehold in Kremlin's traditional backyard which covers a set of the former Soviet republics. Access to the railway of Kazakhstan as an important regional state is a chance the White House will work hard to take the most of under the guise of the alternative supply line to the Afghanistan-based American forces. The result can be the US more serious entry to the Central Asia, where Washington thinks can provide a playfield for a new game with Russia.

Kazakhstan backs down

Despite the fact that the foreign ministry has denied the US access to the Caspian Sea, the news from various outlets confirms that the Kazakhs have rented out a port to the US military. The Russian news agency Sputnik also confirmed that Astana struck a deal with Washington on the port.

In a report titled “Caspian Sea: The Nightmare Comes True”, the Russian news outlet maintained that the Kazakh Senate passed a bill allowing the US to use the country’s ports of Kuryk and Aktau to transfer its military supplies to its forces in Afghanistan.

But the foreign ministry denial statement is belated, coming nearly a week after the news of the Astana-Washington deal was circulated by media. It supports the assumptions that the Kazakh government has taken back its agreement.

Astana retreat, partly because of pressure put by the Russians partly because of the illegality of the bill, can obstruct implementation of the agreement.

The port rent-out to the America military runs counter to the terms of agreements on the Caspian Sea legal regime with the other littoral states. The agreements insist that the littoral parties should contribute to the peace and stability in the sea. Kazakhstan cannot rent out the ports to the Americans because it is a signatory to an accord that bans the state form allowing the foreign forces in the sea. Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan have coasts lying on the Caspian Sea.

This is not the first time the Americans seek access to this sea. Between 2014 and 2016, the news came out that the US and Azerbaijan agreed to provide access to the American forces to the Caspian Sea. But Baku denied that it signed such a deal with Washington.

Frustrated with Azerbaijan provision of a route to the Caspian Sea, the US now tests its chances in another country. But the Kazakh foreign ministry’s dismissing the news about the accord with Washington proved that the US is yet to secure a presence in the Caspian Sea as doors remain closed.