Turkey Woos Ex-Soviet States over Afghan Crisis

[mastodon]

Turkey Woos Ex-Soviet States over Afghan Crisis

Reuters - Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem visited Afghanistan's neighbour Turkmenistan on Monday on the second leg of a trip aimed at forging closer links between ex-Soviet states and NATO in the campaign against Kabul.

Cem held talks with Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov in the Turkmen capital Ashgabat on the situation in Afghanistan after visiting Azerbaijan in the Cacusus region. He was due to fly to Uzbekistan later on Monday.

Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, both Central Asian neighbours of Afghanistan, have promised to provide air corridors and air bases for the United States to deliver humanitarian supplies to the region.

Uzbekistan has also allowed in hundreds of U.S. troops to take part in possible search and rescue in the region. But both countries formally ruled out letting their territories be used as springboards for U.S. military operations in Afghanistan.

Cem is pushing a wide and sometimes vague agenda of humanitarian aid, inter-religious dialogue and security cooperation on his rapid tour of the region.

He said Turkmenistan agreed Afghans had to put tribal feuds behind them and start identifying themselves as one nation.

Afghanistan's hardline ruling Taliban come largely from the country's Pashtun majority, whereas the opposition Northern Alliance is made up of Tajiks, Uzbeks and other minorities. "My impression is that he (Niyazov) wants a rapid end to this conflict between different ethnic groups in Afghanistan...this has long been our policy too," Cem told a briefing after talks with the Turkmen president.

Cem also reiterated that Turkey would "look favourably" on any request to join a peacekeeping force, "when the conditions are right not just in Afghanistan, but also in the whole region that is part of this wide struggle against terrorism". Niyazov made no comment after the talks.

The trip has also dealt with security cooperation. Cem said he had discussed such issues in Azerbaijan but gave few details.

On Sunday, he said Azerbaijan backed his idea of a meeting between the European Union and countries of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to "get rid of the exploitation of our religion and to maintain understanding and cooperation".

Later on Monday in Tashkent, Cem was due to review Turkey's support for Uzbekistan's difficulties with Islamic hardliners.