As Kyrgyzstan was gearing up for presidential elections on July 23, the Ambassador of Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan, Zhanysh Rustenbekov, talked to New Europe correspondent Kulpash Konyrova about plans to unite the Central Asian republics, energy cooperation and the closure of NATO’s air base Manas.

Mister Ambassador, Kurmanbek Bakiev was among the first leaders of the Central Asian republics to support the idea of Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev to unite the Central Asian republics, while the Uzbek President, Islam Karimov, was not
Our president not only expressed his support in word, but has also taken concrete steps. We have created an interstate council, an intergovernmental council, and an inter-parliament committee for cooperation. These structures were set up to bring Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan together. And I hope that the other Central Asian republics will follow our example. In my opinion, the unification of the Central Asian republics should start from energy. This would help resolve the longstanding problems and issues between our countries. On one hand, it would help resolve the issues of supplies of coal and gas to Kyrgyzstan, on the other – the irrigation of fields in the south of Kazakhstan. Further, the current complex system of mutual payments caused partially by the different currencies is pushing us towards a single regional currency, something Mr. Nazarbayev has also talked about.

Kazakhstan is a leading investor to the economy of Kyrgyzstan, but its investments are mainly in the resort industry of Kyrgyzstan. At the same time, Kyrgyzstan has some mineral resources. Is there any prospect of cooperation in this area?
Our republic has the entire Mendeleyev Table. The head of LUKoil, Vagit Alekperov, had done exploration in our republic in his time and said that we have oil and gas. But, the main problem is that 95 percent of the territory of Kyrgyzstan is mountains. The investors interested in mining the mineral resources do come to us, but when after the calculations they see that the costs can be very high, they shrug their shoulders. That is, huge investments are needed to develop the mining industry.

Would Mr. Bakiev’s decision not in favour of the overseas partners to shut down NATO’s air base Manas affect the results of the forthcoming elections?
You will recall that there were several reasons that resulted in the shut down of the air base Manas and President Kurmanbek Bakiev had talked about them on several occasions. Firstly, the security of the Kyrgyz people. As is known, there have been several deaths of our citizens for which nobody was held responsible. Secondly, the ecological reason. Many complaints were received from the residents of the nearby villages about jet fuel spills and other such problems. Thirdly, the financial and economic issues. The thing is, the agreement on the air base Manas was made by another president, and it did not meet the requirements of the time and situation. Therefore, a new agreement for the military air base Manas was made. And the concerns that we had before have been addressed in the new agreement with the American side. I should note that NATO’s air base Manas was not shut down, but it has changed its status. Today, it is a transit base. And I think this is the best solution in the current situation. We, too, should contribute to the settlement of the situation in Afghanistan. This military base is necessary for this purpose.
I would like to note that an informal summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization will be held at the Issyk-Kul resort on July 31 and August 1 this year. The heads of all the CSTO states – Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan - have been invited to the summit. And the summit will coincide with the 16th birthday of Kurmanbek Bakiev on August 1.