Temple Laiti blog

Clinton to lead US delegation to Kazakhstan summit

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will attend the December 1-2 Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) summit in Kazakhstan, a US diplomat said Wednesday.

"Secretary Clinton plans to lead the US delegation to the OSCE summit," Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake said in prepared testimony to a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee.

Blake noted that the gathering, to be held in Kazakhstan's capital Astana, would be the first ever in Central Asia.

"We hope that this event will shine a light on positive developments in Central Asia, and the role that the OSCE has played, and can play in the future, in promoting its principles throughout the OSCE region," he added.

Kazakhstan took over the leadership of the OSCE on January 1, the first former Soviet republic to chair the transatlantic security body, despite its poor record in human rights and democracy.

But Blake said the country had done "a very credible job," notably in troubled neighbor Kyrgyzstan where the organization "has been at the forefront of efforts to promote peace, democracy and reconciliation."

Kazakhstan's long-serving strongman President Nursultan Nazarbayev's current term in office expires in 2012, but in 2007 the parliament ruled that he should be able to stand for president as many times as he liked, as the country's first head of state.

Kazakhstan ranked 142 out of 175 countries on media watchdog Reporters Without Borders' annual worldwide press freedom index last year.

The last OSCE summit was held in Istanbul in 1999 and concluded with the adoption of a common declaration and a charter for European security.

Meanwhile, Clinton said she would travel to the Gulf Arab state of Bahrain in early December.

She announced the trip at the start of a meeting Wednesday with Bahrain's Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mohamed bin Mubarak al-Khalifa, but gave no details.