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NATO Looks East:
Strengthening the Partnership with the Caucasus and Central Asia
At its Istanbul Summit in June 2004, NATO announced its intention to strengthen the
Euro-Atlantic Partnership, in part through a “special focus” on engagement with “Partners in the
strategically important regions of the Caucasus and Central Asia.”
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Toward this end, the Allies
agreed to send two liaison officers to the region—one to be assigned to the Caucasus and the
other Central Asia—in addition to naming a NATO special representative for the region. In the
words of one commentator, the summit “represented a debut of sorts for the Caucasus and
Central Asia, largely ignored by the alliance until now.”
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Indeed, prior to September 11, NATO
was largely focused on peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Kosovo and on integrating those
European states who had formally applied for NATO membership. Although all of the Caucasus
and Central Asian states minus Tajikistan had been members of NATO’s Partnership for Peace
(PfP) since 1994, none had been invited to participate in NATO’s Membership Action Plan
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Istanbul Summit Communique, PR/CP (2004) 096, June 28, 2004 (http://www.nato.int/docu/pr/2004/po4-
096e.htm).
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Jeremy Druker, “NATO Club Offers No New Invitations, but Plenty of Optimism,” International Relations
and Security Network (ISN), January 7, 2005 (www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=9158).
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