WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 (UPI) -- Kazakhstan has opened a new military language institute in Almaty to boost its ties to NATO.
The move is intended to increase the number of personnel with a competent level of military English-language skills and to strengthen Kazakhstan's links with the U.S.-led NATO alliance and its member states, the Eurasia Daily Monitor of the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation reported Thursday.
The new institute was opened Sept. 10, EDS said, citing an Interfax news agency report.
The institute will prepare officers to carry out interpreting work and regional studies that emphasize military intelligence analysis based on a knowledge of two or more languages, EDS said. It will organize training in Chinese, English, French, German, Korean, Turkish, and several oriental languages.
Army Gen. Mukhtar Altynbayev, Kazakhstan's minister of defense, said that next year the institute would become a regional educational center within the framework of NATO's Partnership for Peace (PfP). Kasymzhomart Tokayev, Kazakhstan's foreign minister, made clear his country's continued support for the anti-terrorist efforts in Afghanistan and practical cooperation in Iraq during his Aug. 22-25 trip to Washington, EDS said.
Tokayev's talks with Elliot Abrams, deputy national security adviser to President George W. Bush confirmed Kazakhstan's commitment to democratic reform, EDS said.
Despite recent tests for U.S. policy in Central Asia relating to the termination of its basing rights in Uzbekistan, Tokayev pledged support for Kazakhstan's strategic relationship with the United States. "We are helping the United States to hold the anti-terrorist operation in Afghanistan," he said according to an Aug. 27 report in Komsomolskaya pravda Kazakhstan, cited by EDS.
