Australian Financial Review
November 2
zbekistan has reaffirmed its membership of that group of Afghanistan's neighbours demanding the exclusion of the Taliban from any post-conflict government putting the EU on the spot as it did so.
On Wednesday, Mr Louis Michel, Foreign Minister of Belgium, the EU president, had to disagree publicly with Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who ruled out Taliban participation from any new Afghan government.
The EU presidency ``did not share Uzbekistan's view'', Belgian diplomatic sources told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, where the two men held talks.
Mr Karimov's position of ``no Taliban'' echoes that taken up by Iran and Russia in mid-October and adopted by India on Tuesday.
This common front has emerged in reaction to the US proposal that a ``moderate Taliban'' could form part of a new Afghan government when or if the present regime falls.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov reiterated Moscow's position on Monday.
These neighbours see a ``moderate Taliban'' as no more than a device to allow Pakistan until September 11 the present regime's chief backers to retain influence in Afghanistan after the war. But the EU is unwilling to repudiate the ``moderate Taliban'' option, still under consideration by Washington.
Mr Michel is touring Afghanistan's Central Asian neighbours Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, of which Uzbekistan is by far the most powerful, as the EU gears up for a major humanitarian relief effort for Afghanistan's civilian victims of the War on Terror. But the EU is considering more than just short-term goals in Central Asia.
On Tuesday, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana released a policy paper arguing that the stability of the region was crucial to containing international terrorism, but that the EU would have to step up its commitment if it wished to have meaningful influence in Central Asia.
And Mr Karimov used the aid issue to show that Uzbek support for the West in the War against Terror won't come cheap, refusing Mr Michel's request to allow EU humanitarian aid and personnel to enter Afghanistan through Uzbekistan.
This rebuff to the EU suggests Mr Karimov is living up to his reputation as ``the most ruthless and most able tyrant in the region not to be underestimated'', according to a Canberra-based regional expert. Before Mr Michel left on his Central Asian tour, one Belgian official described Mr Karimov's desire to extract as much as possible for his support of the anti-terrorist coalition as an ``open secret''.
Uzbekistan has earned Western gratitude by providing the US with a base in the War against Terror, the only one of Afghanistan's neighbours apart from Pakistan to have done so. But in so doing Mr Karimov has angered not just the Taliban and their Islamic fundamentalist allies in Uzbekistan. He has also worried his smaller neighbours and angered Russia, which resents him for giving the US a base in Central Asia, which Moscow calls the ``Near Abroad'' and regards as being in its exclusive zone of interest.
Given this regional hostility, it's no wonder Mr Karimov is determined Uzbekistan's reward will be tangible and immediate.