Pentagon Military-Biological Facilities Do Not Belong in Kazakhstan
On May 26th, a regular meeting of the CSTO Collective Security Treaty Organisation Council of Foreign Ministers was chaired by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. A wide range of questions, including the problem of the existence of American military and biological laboratories in the countries of the CSTO, was mentioned at it. The dialogue, naturally, was also about the objects of the Pentagon placed in Almaty and Otar.
“The United States carries out military and biological activity worldwide, including around our borders,” noted Sergey Lavrov at this CSTO Ministers of Foreign Affairs meeting. According to him, Russia is concerned about the problem of biological safety in the former Soviet republics and, in particular, in ally countries — Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Tajikistan, where the Americans have deployed a whole network of laboratories.
It is noteworthy that on May 2nd, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan issued a special statement in response to the briefings of representatives of the Russian and Chinese Foreign Ministries, which stated that the country does not produce biological weapons, and all research programs are funded from the national budget. Allegedly, the Americans have have an indirect relationship to the central reference laboratory in Almaty, providing the Kazakh side with only the latest equipment and a huge building.
As a reminder: this facility consists of a 4-storey building of 6,300 sq.m where laboratories of the 2nd and 3rd levels of biosafety are based. $240 million was spent on its construction, and the complex life support system of the facility is supported by 15 highly qualified engineers. The American “International Science and Technology Center” company, which for its services in 2018-2020 received $2.5 million from the Pentagon, participates in the maintenance of work in this laboratory.
I.e., as we see, the facts indicate the opposite and disprove the statements of the Kazakhstan Foreign Ministry that the central reference laboratory in Almaty is under the complete control, management, and financing of the ministries of science and education and agriculture. Journalists from the “EADaily” website published documents that testify to the direct participation of American experts in the work of central reference laboratories and other facilities, and also about the financing of a lot of research. Thus, according to American data, more than 25 projects have been implemented in Kazakhstan within the framework of joint biological research since 2005. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has allocated more than $20 million for this work.
Moreover, $38 million under a contract with the DTRA was received by another American contractor, CH2M HILL, which from 2017 to the present day has been involved in operational activities, joint research, and supervision of the work of the central reference laboratory. This company is still directly engaged in the management of the laboratory in Almaty and other facilities on the territory of Kazakhstan. In addition, a subcontractor of CH2M HILL – the Integrated Quality Laboratory Services company – was engaged in the certification of the laboratory in Almaty for the third level of safety (BSL-3).
One more American company, AECOM, has a contract with the military agency DTRA for the further development of a network of biolaboratories in Kazakhstan for the sum of $57 million. I.e., there is a plan for the creation of new facilities and the strengthening of existing ones. Therefore, the Americans not only do not plan to curtail their activity, but also intend to cover the territory of Kazakhstan with laboratories and biological material collection points. And indeed, Kazakhstani institutions, such as the Research Institute for Biological Safety Problems, working in the framework of joint projects, are actively helping them in this.
Kazakhstani experts and public figures also have a negative attitude towards the presence of US military biological facilities in the country, which were created without checking and taking into account public opinion, and even in an earthquake-prone zone and in the most densely populated regions of the country. So, for example, the leading expert of the Center for Analysis of Integration Processes of the Countries of Central Asia Ulugbek Babagulov considers that in CSTO countries the activities of these potential enemy objects should be completely curtailed.
“In general, the existence of a network of US military and biological facilities in Kazakhstan creates not only tension in the region, but also is a geopolitical problem, since it is actually an enemy mine laid under the construction of the CSTO, the EEU, and the SCO. How can we think about having allied relations with the same Russia, which is suffering from international sanctions, when American military specialists and biologists freely operate on the territory of our country? Therefore, Lavrov’s concern is quite grounded, as these facilities indeed threaten Russia. Add to this the fact that Kazakhstan is now inside the Customs Union, where the movement of goods and labour resources is maximally facilitated, and along with them, modified strains of various diseases can freely move to other countries of the EEU from the same Almaty or Otar. If we declare ourselves a military ally of other members of the CSTO, then we must immediately close the laboratories and organisations of a potential enemy,” claims U. Babagulov.
This is also echoed by the cochairman of the Socialist movement of Kazakhstan Ainur Kurmanov, who also from the very beginning supported the elimination of the central reference laboratory in Almaty. According to him, now the factor of China is added, which opposes the strengthening of the the US’ position in Kazakhstan and Central Asia and considers American military biological facilities to be an immediate threat.
“This topic is actually much broader, since we have been held hostage by a multi-year multi-vector foreign policy and the transfer of our fields to multinational corporations, both Western and Chinese. And now Kazakhstan becomes a real testing ground in the standoff between the United States and China, where their economic and political interests collide. This is the greatest danger to our people, which may become a victim of this fight. The central reference laboratory is only part of the problem, but the most painful thing – the existence of US military and quasi-military facilities – already works against Kazakhstan. Ak Orda should finally understand that a ‘biological bomb’ cannot be a guarantor of ‘independence’ and a deterrent, but, on the contrary, it is the cause of conflicts of interest throughout Central Asia escalating,” believes the politician.
In his opinion, it is necessary to abandon the previous course and also eliminate the central reference laboratory in Almaty and other US facilities of similar purpose in Kazakhstan. Strengthening the CSTO is the only way out of this situation. Otherwise, the country really risks falling into the meat grinder that is the global standoff and becoming a bargaining chip in the geopolitical game of the collective West.
Ekho Kazakhstana
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