ACTION SCA-00

INFO  LOG-00   EEB-00   AF-00    AID-00   INL-00   DOTE-00  DS-00
      EAP-00   DHSE-00  EUR-00   FAAE-00  FBIE-00  UTED-00  VCI-00
      H-00     TEDE-00  INR-00   IO-00    LAB-01   MOFM-00  MOF-00
      VCIE-00  NEA-00   NRC-00   NSAE-00  ISN-00   OES-00   OIC-00
      OMB-00   NIMA-00  PA-00    PER-00   PM-00    GIWI-00  P-00
      ISNE-00  DOHS-00  IRM-00   SSO-00   SS-00    T-00     NCTC-00
      FMP-00   SCRS-00  PMB-00   DSCC-00  PRM-00   DRL-00   NFAT-00
      SAS-00   FA-00    SRAP-00  SWCI-00  PESU-00  SRMC-00  SRND-00
      SANA-00  (EUR-00   H-00     DRL-00   SCA-00   )  /001W
                  ------------------883084  080959Z /38
O 080814Z JUL 09

FM AMEMBASSY ASTANA

TO SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5739
INFO CIS COLLECTIVE 1712
ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
AMEMBASSY TOKYO
AMEMBASSY BEIJING
AMEMBASSY SEOUL
CIA WASHDC
DIA WASHDC
NSC WASHDC 1263
SECDEF WASHDC 1180
CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
JOINT STAFF WASHDC
DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
DEPT OF ENERGY WASHDC
DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
USMISSION USUN NEW YORK
USMISSION USNATO

UNCLAS ASTANA 001131 
 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN, S/SRAP, EUR/RUS, DRL, H 
PLEASE PASS TO TRAVELING PARTY OF UNDER SECRETARY BURNS AND NSC 
SENIOR ADVISOR MCFAUL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
 
TAGS: PREL PHUM KDEM KNNP AF RS KZ
 
SUBJECT:  KAZAKHSTAN:  CONGRESSMAN FALEOMAVAEGA HEARS, "PLEASE TELL 
PRESIDENT OBAMA TO VISIT" 
 
¶1.  (U) Sensitive but unclassified.  Not for public Internet. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  During Congressman Eni Faleomavaega's July 2-3 
visit to Astana, 
 
-  President Nazarbayev told him that he has been urging Russian 
Prime Minister Putin and President Medvedev to seize the 
opportunities President Obama is offering for a new U.S.-Russia 
partnership; 
 
-  Foreign Minister Tazhin said Kazakhstan will provide increasingly 
important economic and humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan; and 
 
-  Senate Chairman Tokayev thanked the Congressman for understanding 
that Kazakhstan is on a democratic path with respect for human 
rights, and urged that President Obama visit Kazakhstan, which would 
be seen throughout the greater region as an enormously significant 
geostrategic gesture.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶3.  (U) Representative Eni Faleomavaega (D-American Samoa) was in 
Astana July 2-3.  He met with President Nursultan Nazarbayev, State 
Secretary Kanat Saudabayev informally (several times), Foreign 
Minister Marat Tazhin, and Senate Chairman Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev. 
Kazakhstan's Ambassador to the United States, Erlan Idrissov, 
returned to Astana for the visit and participated in all the 
meetings.  All senior Kazakhstani officials greeted Faleomavaega as 
a long-standing and highly respected friend of Kazakhstan.  He also 
attended sessions of the third triennial Congress of World and 
Traditional Religions. 
 
FALEOMAVAEGA'S KEY POINTS 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Faleomavaega's key points for his interlocutors included: 
 
-  his great respect for President Nazarbayev's early renunciation 
of Kazakhstan's nuclear status and the special bond that unites 
Pacific Islanders and Kazakhstanis because both suffered greatly, 
and continue to suffer to this day, because of U.S. and USSR nuclear 
tests and their tragic uncompensated human impact on the 
populations, as well as his adamant support for global nuclear 
disarmament; 
 
-  his acknowledgement and praise that Kazakhstan has become the 
sixth largest grain exporter in the world; 
 
-  in the run-up to the July 6-7 Obama-Medvedev summit in Moscow, 
his dismay that some in official Washington still have a Cold-War 
mindset when, in fact, the United States and Russia should be 
partners, not adversaries; 
 
-  his strong satisfaction that President Obama is winding down U.S. 
involvement in Iraq and focusing on Afghanistan, which is the key 
challenge that must be met; 
 
-  his praise for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as a 
potentially stabilizing force in the greater region, especially if 
India becomes a full member; 
 
-  his understanding that Kazakhstan is on a democratic path and 
needs time to build its institutions and traditions to protect human 
rights; and 
 
-  his intention to establish a Congressional Central Asia Caucus. 
 
PRESIDENT NAZARBAYEV 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Congressman Faleomavaega introduced President Nazarbayev 
to Paul Pieper, President of the East Europe Representative Office 
of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and thanked the 
president for including that church in his Congress of Traditional 
and World Religions.  Pieper, speaking in both Kazakh and Russian, 
presented the tenets of his church, including strong support for 
traditional family values, for education, and for the authority of 
 
 
existing governments, as well as prohibitions against alcohol, 
tobacco, and narcotics.  President Nazarbayev interjected, "You 
don't drink?  There are places in Russia where they live to be over 
100 and drink like fish!"  Then Nazarbayev chuckled and said, "I 
hope you understand that's a joke." 
¶6.  (SBU) Nazarbayev thanked Pieper for attending the Congress and 
asked that he and the Congressman use their influence in Washington 
to remove Kazakhstan from the Jackson-Vanik legislation.  He said, 
"All the Jewish representatives at this Congress thank me for our 
strong record against anti-Semitism and commiserate that it's 
strange we are still subject to out-dated Cold-War legislation in 
the United States." 
 
¶7.  (SBU) President Nazarbayev also praised at length President 
Obama's speeches in Prague (non-proliferation) and Cairo (relations 
with the Muslim world) and said, "We are greatly encouraged by your 
young new president and his impressive government.  We sincerely 
want to work productively with him.  We want him to succeed." 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Nazarbayev told Faleomavaega that he speaks frequently 
with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitriy 
Medvedev.  He said, "I strongly urge them to take advantage of the 
new openings Obama is offering.  I tell them they should seek areas 
of agreement where they can build a strong partnership with the 
United States." 
FOREIGN MINISTER TAZHIN 
 
¶9.  (SBU) The foreign minister, speaking idiomatic English, warmly 
praised Congressman Faleomavaega for his September 2006 speech in 
Washington during Nazarbayev's visit that "set the standard" for 
respectful partnership in non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament. 
 
 
¶10.  (SBU) The Congressman asserted firmly, "The Cold War is over!," 
and advocated strongly a productive partnership with Russia.  He 
lamented the "misguided" U.S. invasion of Iraq and praised President 
Obama for his strong focus on Afghanistan.  He deplored the Russian 
invasion of Georgia, and pledged to work to promote a stronger U.S. 
partnership with Kazakhstan and all of Central Asia.  He advocated 
Central Asian unity to build stronger bloc relations with the West. 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Tazhin admitted he and his colleagues are frustrated 
because official Washington in general - "not the experts, of 
course" - still lump all the Central Asian countries together as 
"the 'stans" and don't really seem to understand the vast 
differences among the five countries, especially the enormous 
disparity in economic and political development.  He said President 
Nazarbayev is firmly committed to unity in the region but 
understands he must go slowly, "step by step," because of the 
"contradictions among the leaders." 
 
¶12.  (SBU) Tazhin praised the United States for initially 
overthrowing the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001 - "in 1999 and 2000, 
we were facing real and imminent threats" - and for the U.S. 
recommitment under President Obama to "getting Afghanistan right." 
He acknowledged that a stable and prosperous Afghanistan is strongly 
in the interest of Kazakhstan.  He noted that Kazakhstan's military 
assistance in Afghanistan "cannot be significant" but pledged 
Kazakhstan will provide increasingly important humanitarian and 
economic support.  He advocated that the United States take a 
"long-term political view" in Afghanistan because, he said, he 
believes Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai "will not be around 
much longer.  We cannot tie ourselves to him and his failed 
government." 
 
¶13.  (SBU) Tazhin told Congressman Faleomavaega that an improved 
U.S.-Russia relationship will be strongly in Kazakhstan's favor.  He 
said, "We choose - and we have no other choice than to have - a 
pragmatic relationship with Russia because it is a strategic 
necessity for us.  At the same time, we strongly value and seek to 
enhance our relationship with the United States.  Please do what you 
 
 
can to help us in Washington." 
 
¶14.  (SBU) Tazhin warmly praised Faleomavaega's life work and told 
him that it is Kirkegaardian:  "You combine being, mind, and 
existence." 
SENATE CHAIRMAN TOKAYEV 
 
¶15.  (SBU) Tokayev, too, warmly praised Faleomavaega's September 
2006 speech in Washington during President Nazarbayev's visit and 
cited it as a "touchstone of our nations' bilateral relationship and 
commitment to nuclear disarmament."  He added, "Thank you for truly 
understanding our realities and not just believing the prejudicial 
headlines."  The Congressman said he deeply regrets that the world 
does not bother to understand the real Kazakhstan and all that it 
has achieved during its short period of independence.  Both agreed 
that Central Asia will continue to grow significantly in importance 
for the United States and on the world stage in the next several 
years. 
 
¶16.  (SBU) Senate Chairman Tokayev said, "I want to tell you 
frankly, what we need most of all is for President Obama to visit 
Kazakhstan, as he told me in Istanbul he would do.  That would be an 
enormous symbolic gesture that would reverberate throughout the 
greater region.  It would be seismic."  The Congressman said he 
would indeed pass this message personally to President Obama. 
¶17.  (SBU) Faleomavaega told Tokayev, "I continue to argue with my 
colleagues about human rights in Kazakhstan.  I tell them you are 
only 18 years old.  It took the United States 150 years to grant 
voting rights to African-Americans!"  Tokayev replied, "Thank you 
sincerely for understanding.  We are irrevocably committed to 
democracy and human rights, but it is indeed a process." 
 
HOAGLAND