between ten to forty two million barrel oil republican conflicts down possesses the region's largest oil reserves that's nine to forty billion barrels and exports about one point three million barrels per day while the administration is suggestion that it considers central asia to be significant to the diversification of suppliers of energy to europe or even to the united states the position of special advisor for gas for an energy diplomacy was abolished in two thousand and four and the state department has yet to appoint a cord nader for international energy affairs which the energy independence is security tools seven two thousand and seven calls for the administration to do two thousand and six when russia temporarily cut off gas to ukraine which highlighted the european union's dependence on russian oil and gas ministration encourage central asian countries to transport energy exports to europe through pipelines that cross the caspian sea thereby bypassing russia and consisting of russia china and all the central asian states except turkmenistan called for coalition members supporting operations you know afghanistan to decide on the deadline for their military contingents pres those countries despite signing this declaration none of the central asian leaders have called for the closure of the u s and other coalition base your security interests also include the elimination of pacific sarat commentary of the nuclear arms race despite the fact that u s military officials knew the winds shifted three hours before the hydrogen bomb explosion they went on the part of the u s government several hundred marshallese men women and children were so really exposed to nuclear radiation let alone several hundred u s soldiers and sailors were also exposed to nuclear radiation and to date the u s government still has not fully addressed the problems of giving proper medical treatment of them r c t s men women and children who were exposed my intention of this subcommittee to pursue this matter more on the government to go on the relationship between the republic of the marshall islands and the u s government in terms of what should be done to give assistance on this terrible thing that we did during the magnetron hydrogen bomb that was exploded in context and there's it was three thousand times more powerful than the u s hydrogen bomb that was exploded as a result of those one point five million concerts were exposed to nuclear radiation as a result of the soviet union nuclear testing program at that time another sad commentary about the nuclear arms race the nuclear explosions and to this day nothing is ever been brought to give any assistance to the government of kazakhstan that was done by the former soviet union arsenal shutting down the world's second largest nuclear test site what do you demand for all of us can never be underestimated and should never be forgotten certainly your credit also to senator sa nunn and senator lugar for their participation in the notion of enduring the dismantling program where our government also participated in dismantling the nuclear weapons that were left in the former soviet union in kazakhstan affairs two years ago quarter of his career our approach to this region first of all thank you for holding this hearing and thank you personally for your interest in what is a critical region for the united states you you said we have so many things to play here some of them  willingness to travel out there and to focus really on some of these issues that are critical to us i think is very important part of our policy in this region it's a region that's going through a lot of change and tremendous change in the region we have a lot of interest there along with other countries that have many interests there so there's a certain amount of opportunity i guess i'd say for the countries involved to do things with different countries including  transformation in the region that can lead to lasting peace and prosperity begin with let me say clearly that our policy in the region is firmly based on the premise the five central asian nations are sovereign independent states with whom we should maintain multi dimensional relations on a broad range of policies tampa's as a relationships with the central asians themselves we're not out there and play games some great game or to play with other powers are out there and work with each of these countries in their own way to try to build them and give them choice and opportunity we seek to maintain mature bilateral relations with each country based on our foreign policy goals and values and each country specific characteristics and dynamics our overall goal in the region is clear we aim to support the development of fully sovereign stable and democratic nations to respect human rights we also want them to be integrated into the world economy cooperate with one another with the united states and our partners in to advance regional security and stability our strategy rests on three integrated pillars pillars austrian security cooperation spanning commercial an economic opportunity including through economic reform promoting internal democratic form of protection of human rights we see these three pillars inextricably linked to mutually reinforcing genuine stability in our view is best achievement citizens have a stake in a government that respects their rights civility in turn fosters economic development accelerates growth and broadens well thus we're determined to pursue all three pillars in a balanced way we're also promoting multiple linked linkages to connect central asia to the world no country should be left with only one option one market one trading partner one vital infrastructure one source of information central a landlocked region far from major maritime trading routes but as we all know it was once a crossroads for all global trade and it could be that once again central asia lies next door to some of the world's most dynamic economic regions and that is to assist advantage more options and central asians have more choices to more independence day secretary rice is articulate a clear vision for a stable and democratic central asia one that's increasingly connected to south asia seen the interests of the central asian states to build linkages to the south that compliment their existing ties in the north the east and the west our goal is to help them revive ancient ties between south and central asia and to help create new links in the areas of trade transport democracy ideas energy communication let me cite an example in august two thousand and seven i was at the opening of a new bridge spanning the  is rivers and flows between tetchy christan and afghanistan bridge was signed by the us army corps of engineers funded by the us government with a major contribution from norway it will boost economic development by increasing regional trade and investment important piece of the future regional highway network as well a network that extends from karate pakistan ostinato kazakhstan and includes the more than two thousand four hundred miles of roads that we've built within afghanistan since two thousand and one we're also trying to link afghanistan and other ways to the countries in the region one opportunity is for them to supply power to northern afghanistan and on our part to help develop the afghan electricity system so that afghans can benefit from that connection together with other donors who are also exploring ways to export electricity from central asia beyond afghanistan to pakistan and eventually india you spoke of the hydrocarbons the oil and gas potential this region which is huge and which is already being exported through through a variety of routes and it is in our to try to help them develop multiple routes other routes to export hydrocarbons from the region including the trans caspian route you resources mr chairman in your letter of invitation to the hearing today and some of the things you mentioned in your opening remarks you asked a number of specific questions about u s policy in closing our efforts in the areas of democracy and human rights security central asian energy i look forward to discussing these let me assure you on these issues are all high on our agenda central asia we work with each of the central asian states to dance multiple objects the rate of progress often differs in each of the five countries we make clear to each of our central asian partners and we expect to move forward in all areas of cooperation you mentioned a couple of things in your in your opening remarks and maybe i should just try to deal with if i can one by one and then you can remind me whatever i forget two thousand and four we did abolish the post of energy coordinator at that time that was a recommendation of our point but more recently we created an energy structure for this region because we see that opportunities with the expansion of oil exports from kazakhstan new opportunities might be created for turkmenistan and the needs in europe especially for a more diversified source of energy so we have a number of high level officials that are working full time on your asian energy on caspian energy matters one  former deputy steve mann is an expert in this and he's now devoting his full time to the oil and gas account for this region there are people in my view the european bureau the work with him in addition the president has announced a nomination matters involved in energy from this region in providing energy in a diversified manner from your you talked about the human rights problems in the region and they are many  even some of the places that have been going better like you're just on are now facing some problems and concerns we're very forthright and frank in raising concerns and all these countries where very focused i think in the way we try to move things  forward we don't try to keep things from moving in other places where they may need to where we have interests like border control or narcotics control ties to afghanistan or other things we develop as well but we always make cooperation organization has called for a deadline for u s presence and i think the simplest answer to that what you notice since three years ago when they when they said that nobody in the region has tried to do support and their contribution to what's an important effort that all of us are engaged in trying to stabilize afghanistan for strategic reasons but also to terrorism from coming out of there into other parts of the region and indeed other  like so i think we do have very positive and healthy relationships with these governments by and large we certainly have very active dialogues even in the places where we have tremendous problems and our goal is to as i said to try to move forward  to superpowers no longer exists but we continue expanding and organizing nato for what there's no more so my union and you help us with that sir there are a lot of good questions there i guess any time we try to organize ourselves bureaucratically we have to divide the world up into chunks that we can deal with these countries have been if you look over the last fifteen years of their independence which is not a long time but the five stanzas they're called a central asian have been part of the european bureau the state department they've been part of a separate sort of russia former former soviet union  now they're part of a region that includes south asia and central asia together the reason the secretary rice wanted to do this is because he thought that's where the strategic opportunity in no way are we trying to take away from their existing ties  infrastructure of russia that's an important opportunity they're building new ties and markets and for energy and trade another relationships with china that's an important opportunity for them they have we continue to work very hard along with europe to develop their ties to europe indeed most of the countries most of the heads of state we're in just in bucharest last week at the nato meeting participating  in the nato events there along with other countries in this broader area that nato is trying to develop ties with and several of them have partnership for peace programs and other programs with nato that helps them develop their forces develop their capabilities in natural disaster relief for example and other areas with the assistance of nato and i think it's important that people keep that association with keep association with the european union european union is very active in this region we work closely with them they keep association with the organization for security and cooperation in europe which can be an important source of advice on democratization and constitutional change as well as values support for professional security operations  are respect for human rights and other things as well as economic opportunities so there's a lot of these ties to europe that are very important to us we work very hard to nurture but for us organizationally the new opportunity of south asia on september eleventh would you use a whole different to go to afghanistan supposedly to look to go after osama bin laden which five six years later we still have not found osama bin laden always also wondered in the whole realm of putting the finger on iran because of nuclear testing or nuclear reactors that might be transformed a nuclear weapon system and then our european allies trade with  there seems to be a contradiction here turn out like for you how we've done on the one and we're going after iran the worst for isolating and putting all kinds of sanctions because of a proposed nuclear reactor that  and there are enormous problems afghanistan there are enormous problems in afghanistan that affect central asia people are worried about some of the terrorism attacks can come their way certainly they're worried about drug trafficking comes out of afghanistan and goes in their direction  symbolized by that bridge sector you and i were out at the opening of last august opportunities to bring electricity down there are contracts there are lines being built these countries will start supplying some of the energy that afghanistan needs a couple years beyond that they'll start supplying energy through afghanistan down to pakistan which is desperately in need of energy and eventually we hope down in india those are opportunities are emerging and even as we deal with all the challenges and difficulties of afghanistan we have to develop these opportunities as well as for iran i don't deal directly with iran i deal with the facts of iran and afghanistan where we see or idea behaviors sometimes for the government sometimes culture and commerce sometimes supply of weapons to the taliban sometimes for in the political process iran is very difficult to deal with in this region and we do on the on the issue of european trading with iran i think if you look back at how we dealt with the issue of the problems that iran has created over the last couple of years the nuclear problem has been a matter of extensive discussion and coordination with the europeans and other allies it's been a matter of u n resolutions where everybody got together and agreed so we've been working with those people as well and they've been supporting the overall  yourself against somebody that might not have the kind of nuclear deterrence that we've had in the cold war days but it might have some kind of small capability it could be used any moment for any reason the shanghai cooperation organization question let me make sure i answer it this time i got it last time the you know the organization was founded with the goal of improving border security improving border exchanges promoting cooperation against terrorism in the region and i think to the extent the organization has done those things contributed to better security and stability for the countries involved it's wandered off in various directions during the course of  i would say is probably stabilized again back to the basics border security cross border cooperation customs border procedures efforts common efforts against terrorism and to that extent you know when it does that we think it makes a contribution to the region it's not becoming as we see it a sort of military alliance certainly not organization that marshalling capabilities commanding militant instructing countries what to do and how to do it and whenever we see it heading in that direction to countries telling the countries what to do we tend to stand up for little countries and say it's your right to decide we work with countries to combat iranian influence when they're trying to influence governments or political parties or modify sort of religious practices or supply weapons to the  changes that probably move the system forward but accompanied by a series of regulations and laws that meant that they ended up having an election where only one party got into parliament that clearly is not practical forward for human rights election last year as well so it's not sailing it's not always forward movement but i think generally we have managed to keep human rights the way people treat their own people on the agenda for these countries we've managed to support the human dimension the human rights side of the as well as the nomic security side and to preserve the mandate not tanami of the office of democratic democratic institutions and human rights which had been under challenge by some other countries in the region and we thought that with these commitments of support you're going to say sion and to you know its own way try to bring itself up to the standards of chairmanship and we could support the idea of kazakhstan becoming chairman in the year two thousand and ten this year we have been following up on those commitments i was out there in february met with all the leaders including president and foreign minister and others in the administration we talked about the commitments we heard from them firm commitment to carry out those pledges we had talked in previous times with various people in civil society in the opposition and i talked to them again during my  trip and they were shall i say they were very skeptical as to whether the government really would carry out its pledges but they all recognize that if those pledges were met they were that would be a significant change in terms of opening up the system and opening up society so where you heard the commitment we're working to keep them to the commitment and to try to make sure that they carry out their own pledges support the organization in their chairmanship chairmanship of this organization and then the rest of the members of this organization we've been working this for about two years and yes indeed it was we weren't alone there was a very small group of formal part of the soviet union to become involved in these different organizations the soviet union was in the o s c and when the soviet union fell apart all the different countries that had been part of the soviet union that but it was it was the idea of collective security and transparency that would help build security for everybody but i have to say in the days of the soviet union soviets were always pushing it in the direction of security and economics markets we also support with our aid programs and in the use of human rights they have constitutional experts election experts people who can work with political parties in a very nonpartisan way people can work with the media on media training and so they run a lot of programs and what we want is for countries to participate participate in all aspects of this not to pick and choose but to understand that all these  off based on what i know of the countries in the region they all want to have free trade agreements more open trade and with each other we work a lot on trade facilitation when you look at the bridge you know they're interested in opening up trade where i am frankly working on that with them as well but in the end i don't think they want to get tied into trading with only one partner one set apart the european union banded together  of other factors you have these enormous consumer countries coming in now as china develops its economy is indeed sure i mean they want energy too for their development we have other programs to try to help them with their energy needs to be in india where i work but in the end there's a lot of pressure on supply there's a lot of demand coming out in the world and a whole bunch of other factors have driven prices up what i do think is the more that we can do to help these countries diversify their routes for x more oil and gas is available to these various countries whether it's directly through pipelines or  price is pushed in a more stable direction so it's in our interest to see these countries you will to act be able to have multiple routes of export and not be monopolized in any one place and so that they get the business practices and the ability to develop their resources get them a decent deal get them the advantage of there other countries have not been have not done that with their natural it's never been developed because there's not a regional energy market they haven't really done what it takes economically to produce investment to get in hydro power let's face it there are places in the world like switzerland but i have to say the problem coming out of afghanistan the drugs coming out of afghanistan is very very large quantities it's very hard for these countries to do that and we've seen in these countries some of the bribery and corruption that comes with it  rooms you know they say will help me with this help me with that i say ok but you know what can you do on human rights how are you moving forward on economic reforms and they say what's the matter with you mary you know chinese six hundred countries develop better than others i think to the extent that they've undertaken reforms to the extent to date opened up to cooperation with the outside world including outside companies and trees and done better and that's the package we have to  for the worst abuses of human rights and i've had the opportunity of talking to some of the leaders of these countries that we put these labels as being the worst human rights abusers and they get very offended as a lot of times the  i think this is what separates us perhaps a country like china which has an entirely different outlook or format towards its foreign policy policy towards other countries in the world buying off by writing out a checkbook and all this and i said wait a minute my understanding we had eight billion dollars worth of cash in iraq and we can account for that we gave to the iraqi people i said i would use a better form of diplomacy cash diplomacy or checkbook diplomacy so we have to be a little careful doing pointing fingers saying who is doing this and that and therefore not doing the same as well i just wanted to share that concern question i don't have total numbers on russia and china are widely available but our assistance in this region over the last couple of years gone down three or four years ago about one hundred thirty five million dollars  kazakhstan where they've actually agreed to take over these programs and are themselves funding these programs placing us money i think is ten million dollars total about halfway there now funding about half done is they've taken a certain chunk of their oil and gas money and put it in scholarship and they think they're working up towards three thousand scholarships a year for their students to pay for their students to go abroad and a latest happenings in that region which are concerned are very important and unfortunately it doesn't have the visibility and the focus as much as for answers or the region assumed even among the countries but i sincerely believe that in the coming statements you're led to conclude i just want to thank you for having me over today and thanks for your personal interest in your travel to his region and i'm glad to be able to work policy with you you know like there's nothing personal strictly