New Delhi
18 February 2007
China but some of them lost out territorially and politically to China on the negotiating
table, according to a former ambassador of Kazakhstan to China.
Murat Mukhtarovich Auezov, who was Kazakhstan's first ambassador to China from 1992
to 1995, is particularly critical of the manner in which China approached the boundary
dispute with Kazakhstan.
He told this newspaper in New Delhi that Kazakhstan and certain other Central Asian
republics may have resolved their border disputes with China to Beijing's advantage
and invited avoidable problems along the way.
Referring to the pitfalls of negotiating with a neighbour like China, he says it (resolution
of border) was a "big mistake" because Kazakhstan has ended up with an agreement
that "serves China's interests, not Central Asia's".
The Central Asian republics did not stand united then and they are only now beginning to
realise the enormity of the attendant problems, like Chinese migration, which has
brought in its wake demographic and political concerns.
According to data put out by the Chinese Foreign Ministry in 2005, China has signed
border treaties or agreements with 12 neighbouring countries and demarcated 90 per
cent its land boundaries, with the exception of India.
"The special representatives [of India and China] will intensify their work to seek for a
fair, rational framework acceptable to both in accordance with the political guiding
principles", Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Jiang Yu said recently.
Mr Murat Auezov (65) is in India on an 11-day visit. Last week he participated in a round
table discussion on "The Issue of Historical-Cultural Interactions between India and
Kazakhstan". The Indian Council of World Affairs organised it.
He is the son of the legendary writer Mukhtar Auezov, who wrote the book "My India",
based on his travels in India in 1955. Mr Murat, who is on his fifth visit to India, intends
to retrace his father's journeys in India. His first visit was in 1972.
Mr Murat says the Central Asian countries may have benefited from the oil transit money
received from China but they have had to pay a price for it by settling the issue of water
resources, including cross-border rivers, to the advantage of China.
He feels the expanding Chinese economic and trade ties has given rise to political and
demographic threats. China and the Republic of Kazakhstan established diplomatic
relations on January 3, 1992.
When Kazakhstan became an independent state almost a decade ago, it inherited a
border conflict with China that dates back several centuries. In 1998, China and
Kazakhstan reached a broad understanding on the border dispute.
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