During January, Senator Lugar travelled to Central Asia to promote increased cooperation on energy security and the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program. U.S. interests in the southern Caucasus and Central Asia were made clear with the war in Afghanistan, and their strategic position remains vital, including in relation to NATO. Likewise, the region is an intersection of U.S. trade and public diplomacy. Yet there are many pressing challenges relating to economic growth, civil society and democratic development, and inter- and intra- state conflict in which the U.S. can play a productive role.
In particular, further opening of the East-West energy corridor from Central Asia through the Caucasus and on to Western markets needs to have full-backing of U.S. diplomacy. While little oil and natural gas will reach American consumers directly, the supplies are critical to the energy security of European allies and to international markets.
Below is a journal accounting of his trip and activities.
January 9: Senator Lugar Secures Deadly Plague Samples for Cooperative Research
A team of American scientists working under the Nunn-Lugar program quietly entered the Republic of Kazakhstan in sub-zero temperatures during Senator Lugar’s visit to the country from January 9-11. Their mission was to begin the careful packaging of bubonic and pneumonic plague samples in accordance with international safety standards for the transport of dangerous biological materials.
Senator Lugar announced that the samples have been safely transported on a U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo plane to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Fort Collins, Colorado. It marked the successful completion of a five-year negotiation involving Senator Lugar and Nunn-Lugar program officials to secure, transport and develop a research program for the pathogens.
“Cooperative research by American and Kazakhstani scientists will develop prevention and cure possibilities for this deadly plague. It provides new hope for places where the disease is naturally occurring and helps deter the plague’s use as a bio-terror weapon,” Senator Lugar said. “I appreciate the cooperation of Kazakh officials with the Nunn-Lugar program in negotiating the agreement and helping secure and transport these deadly pathogens.”
Plague, a highly lethal disease spread from rodents to humans by fleas, caused the Black Death which swept across Europe in the 14th century. It is estimated that 20-30 million Europeans died – perhaps as much as half of the continent’s population at the time. An estimated 75 million people worldwide died from the Black Plague.
The bacterium which causes plague was weaponized by the Soviet Union and could be maliciously introduced into a population by terrorists.
A team of Kazakhstani and American plague experts will conduct joint research on the samples at federal labs in Fort Collins, Colorado. They will develop advanced diagnostics and treatments for plague. This cooperative public health research funded through the U.S. Department Health and Human Services Biotechnology Engagement Program will yield valuable scientific insights into a potentially devastating disease, which is endemic throughout Central Asia. The aim of such cooperation is to improve the protection of Kazakhstani and global populations against a naturally occurring disease that could also be exploited by terrorists.
In December 2007 U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates signed an agreement with the Government of Kazakhstan to extend the Nunn-Lugar program with Kazakhstan for seven years.
More information on the Nunn-Lugar program may be found at http://lugar.senate.gov/nunnlugar/