KAZAKHSTAN AND NATO.

U.S. Ambassador to NATO Robert Hunter conferred yesterday in Almaty with Kazakhstan’s defense minister Alibek Kasymov and other officials on the country’s activities in the NATO Partnership for Peace program. Discussions focused on Kazakhstan’s participation in PFP joint military exercises in 1996 and on ensuring the country’s permanent representation at NATO headquarters in Brussels. Hunter conveyed NATO’s praise for the formation of the joint Kazakh-Uzbek-Kyrgyz peacekeeping battalion under UN — not CIS — auspices. (Interfax, Reuter, April 4) Kazakhstan participated in military exercises in the U.S. state of Louisiana in 1995 and has expressed interest in hosting PFP military exercises with U.S. participation on its territory this year. At the same time, President Nursultan Nazarbaev has urged NATO to demonstrate caution in enlarging eastward.

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