CILLER IN KAZAKHSTAN.

Turkish prime minister Tansu Ciller’svisit to Kazakhstan did not produce a bilateral agreement on transportingKazakh oil to Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. Instead, the two countries’oil and gas ministers agreed to sign a protocol which would inviteother organizations and countries to join in building an oil pipelinefrom the Caspian Sea to Turkey. Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayevmade a point of publicly inviting Russia and Transcaucasus countriesto join in that project. The outcome reflects Nazarbayev’s cautioussupport for national exploitation of Caspian mineral resourcesand the Turkish pipeline route, tempered by concern over possibleRussian retaliation–to which Kazakhstan is more vulnerable thanother Central Asian countries.

Tajik Standoff Defused.