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UNCLAS ASTANA 000062 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN, S/SRAP, EUR/RUS, P/M 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL MARR RS AF KZ
SUBJECT:  KAZAKHSTAN:  MFA PUBLICLY DENIES POLITICAL PROBLEMS WITH 
EXPANDED OVERFLIGHT 
 
¶1.  (U) Sensitive but unclassified.  Not for public Internet. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  In response to Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov's 
statement to "Radio Free Europe" that Kazakhstan is delaying full 
implementation of the U.S.-Russia Transit Agreement, Kazakhstan's 
Foreign Ministry made public today the U.S. request to add an 
additional route to the existing overflight agreement. 
Interfax-Kazakhstan news wire printed comments by the MFA's 
spokesman, who said Kazakhstan has no political problem with the 
proposal and is simply working out the "technical details" of the 
proposal and preparing it for parliament's review.  Full text of the 
article is below.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Begin full text of article. 
 
Kazakhstan to provide an additional air corridor for U.S. to 
transport cargoes to Afghanistan 
 
Astana.  January 21.  Interfax-Kazakhstan -- The Kazakh Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs is developing an international agreement to allow 
the U.S. to transport military cargoes to Afghanistan through an 
additional air corridor of Kazakhstan. 
 
Kazakhstan has been supporting the Operation Enduring Freedom from 
the very beginning and opened an air corridor back in 2001 for U.S. 
cargo transportation to Afghanistan through Kazakhstan, Askar 
Abdrakhmanov, the official representative of the Kazakh Ministry for 
Foreign Affairs, told Interfax-Kazakhstan. 
 
"Now the talks are about Kazakhstan to provide an additional air 
corridor that will run from Russia to Afghanistan.  The U.S. sent us 
a request last November asking to open this corridor," Mr. 
Abdrakhmanov said. 
 
Earlier the Russian foreign affairs minister, Sergei Lavrov, said 
that the U.S. could not transport their cargoes to Afghanistan as 
some technical issues had not been resolved with the Central Asian 
countries, Kazakhstan among them. 
 
"At the moment the Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the 
concerned governmental agencies are drafting an international 
agreement which, when signed by the American side, will have to be 
ratified by the Kazakh parliament.   Cargo transit through the 
additional air corridor will become possible after the mentioned 
procedures are completed," Mr. Abdrakhmanov explained. 
 
According to him, the U.S. initiated the same talks with Russia much 
earlier than with Kazakhstan and, consequently, the talks were 
finished earlier too. 
 
"There are no political aspects involved here.  It is a purely 
technical issue as the Russian foreign minister said before," Mr. 
Abdrakhmanov stressed. 
 
Russia and the U.S. signed the agreement on military transit through 
Russia to Afghanistan in Moscow last year. 
 
HOAGLAND