NATO Official Sees Hope For Ties With Uzbekistan
August 22, 2006
Uzbek soldiers and military hardware on the streets of Andijon after a crackdown in which at least 187 people were killed (epa)
Robert Simmons told RFE/RL's Uzbek Service that the military crackdown in Andijon in May 2005 obviously put a chill on Uzbek-NATO ties, but he said he hoped relations could soon improve and that Uzbek President Islam Karimov would soften its criticism of the alliance.
"Our hope would be that after a period of time we can begin to improve relations and I think his own rhetoric towards NATO and the West in general has improved a little bit," Simmons said.
Simmons added that Uzbekistan's recent readmission into the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) should not affect its future collaboration with NATO.
Uzbekistan was readmitted into the CSTO on the sidelines of an informal summit of CIS leaders on August 17 in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.
The CSTO comprises Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan had left the organization in 1999.