Foreign Policy Aspects of Ensuring the Military Security of the Kyrgyz Republic
The insufficiency of military means to ensure external security is something Kyrgyzstan tries to compensate for by developing partnership relations, military and military-technical cooperation, and participation in collective security systems. The Military Doctrine of 2002 notes that, while providing for the development of the military organization of the state, “the Kyrgyz Republic attaches primary importance to political-diplomatic and other non-military actions to prevent, localize, and neutralize threats to the military security of the state.
Development of Partnership Relations. In order to develop partnership relations, Kyrgyzstan signed a Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance with the Russian Federation (1992), Treaties of Eternal Friendship with the Republic of Uzbekistan (1996) and the Republic of Kazakhstan (1997), and a trilateral Treaty of Eternal Friendship with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan (1997). On December 25, 2003, the presidents of the Kyrgyz Republic and the Republic of Kazakhstan signed a Treaty on Allied Relations.
Agreements reached with the People's Republic of China regarding the border, as well as on strengthening trust in the military sphere in the border area (1996), and on mutual reduction of armed forces in the border area (1997) allowed for the consolidation of existing borders and the reduction of troops and weapons in the border zone. Today's foreign policy course of China, which involves renouncing territorial claims and establishing friendly and mutually beneficial relations with all neighboring states, along with Kyrgyzstan's renunciation of support for Uyghur separatists, has contributed to the normalization of relations with a former potential adversary. In 2002, a Treaty of Good Neighborliness, Friendship, and Cooperation was signed between the Kyrgyz Republic and the People's Republic of China.
The development of partnership relations with neighboring states is facilitated by emerging processes of economic integration. On October 10, 2000, at a meeting in Astana, the heads of state of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan signed a Treaty on the Establishment of the Eurasian Economic Community. In 2002, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan signed a Treaty on the Establishment of the Central Asian Cooperation Organization. In 2004, Russia joined the Treaty. On October 7, 2005, at a summit in St. Petersburg, the heads of the member states of the Central Asian Cooperation Organization decided to join it with the Eurasian Economic Community. The main argument for this unification was the minimization of bureaucratic hurdles for further economic integration. In early 2006, an Agreement was signed between Russia and Kazakhstan to establish the Eurasian Development Bank with a charter capital of $1.5 billion, the activities of which are planned to be extended to the Eurasian Economic Community.
Military and Military-Technical Cooperation developed in several directions:
• bilateral cooperation with post-Soviet states;
• multilateral cooperation within the framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Collective Security Treaty Organization;
• multilateral cooperation based on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization;
• bilateral and multilateral cooperation at the regional level;
• bilateral cooperation with states of the world community;
• cooperation with NATO in the "Partnership for Peace" program.
Within the framework of military and military-technical cooperation, Kyrgyzstan received significant assistance during the invasion of illegal armed formations of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan into the southern part of the country.
