Nursultan Nazarbayev
PER
Nazarbayev Nursultan Nazarbayev
Mr. Kellner said that ensuring friendly relations with the Kazakh leadership was just as important as getting the oil. China's leadership has viewed with alarm the creation after Sept. 11, 2001, of American military bases in Central Asia -- which China considers its backyard -- and has tried to woo Kazakhstan's longtime president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, away from closer relations with the United States, he said. When Mr. Nazarbayev delivered a major policy speech on March 1, he listed ''increasing integration with Russia'' as Kazakhstan's first foreign priority and ''improving cooperation'' with China as his second. Mr. Nursultan Nazarbayev Kazakhstan's longtime president delivered a major policy speech in which he listed the increasing integration with Russia as Kazakhstan's first foreign priority and improving cooperation with China as his second. Mr. Nazarbayev approved the Chinese pipeline because it offered an extra oil export route to reduce his landlocked country's dependence on Russia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey.