A United Kingdom Vienna Document 1999 inspector on mission to Kazakhstan

In the military, we all get used to early starts, and departing from Henlow, the home of the United Kingdom Joint Arms Control Implementation Group (JACIG) at 0330 on a Monday morning has become something of a habit.  So it was a pleasant change to find that our deployment to Kazakhstan in May for a Vienna Document 1999 inspection was midday on a Sunday. The downside was that our time of arrival in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, was 0530 the following morning.

But what a capital; and what a country. Our courteous hosts readily agreed to our team’s request for a few hours’ rest in the hotel before going through some Point of Entry procedures. After we had specified an area on the east coast of the Caspian Sea for inspection, our Senior Escort Officer made arrangements for our onward travel and then, since we would not be staying in Astana, showed us around the city. Though that sort of thing is just a by product of arms control work, it is always fascinating to see other cultures and their way of life. It tends to be a reminder that common understanding is something that has to be worked on quite hard – we all come from very different perspectives and histories. Nevertheless, everywhere I have been as part of an inspection team, our escorts have always done their utmost to make us feel welcome, and Kazakhstan was no exception.

We were in Kazakhstan for a Vienna Document 1999 Specified Area Inspection, the main purpose of which is to check for military activity that requires notification under the terms of the document.  In recent years, notifiable levels of activity have been rare and it is more common now to identify an area where lesser levels of activity (perhaps battalion, regimental or brigade training) are thought to be taking place. In addition, inspection teams are entitled to receive briefings from any units or formations that are based in the Specified Area. A normal inspection programme extends over two days, taking in an overflight of the area to check for activity and some time on the ground getting briefings from commanders.

We flew out to the Specified Area on a military flight, in an AN-26 aircraft. We were seven people in the back – the five members of our inspection team, including one auxiliary, and the Escort team of two. The Kazakh military had decided to use the flight for training a new crew, and with them and their instructors on board, the cockpit was full compared to the spacious hold. We flew in two legs, from Astana to an air force base at Aktobe for refuelling and then on to Aktau on the Caspian Sea.

Having reached the Specified Area the aircrew flew us around it at an altitude of 1,000 metres, on a route that we had indicated to our hosts the day before. The overflight went like clockwork. Visibility was good and there were reasonable sight lines from the back of the aircraft. We had taken plenty of Google Earth imagery with us, so it was easy enough to keep track of where we were.

Finally, we landed at Aktau Airport, where we were met by the commander of 390 Separate Coastal Defence Brigade and some of his officers. The inspection team, national Escorts and local Escorts were loaded into three different cars, and we headed off into town to our hotel accommodation. I had a fascinating conversation with the young junior officer driving me, who had sufficient English to be able to paint a very vivid picture of his life and career thus far. We completed the first day’s work with a trip out to 390 Brigade, where we were briefed by the commander, with plenty of input from General Major Tazbulatov, the Chief of Staff of Regional Command West and, as it happened, a former commander of the Brigade.

The following day was spent on ground travel around the Specified Area. Since there is only one Vienna Document 1999 Notifiable Unit in the area, we had time to return to 390 Brigade for a more detailed visit. If one compares the size of a Specified Area with the size of Kazakhstan, it becomes quite clear why it is rare to see more than one or two units per inspection trip.  But we found that the Brigade was thriving: more soldiers than I had seen in any other unit in a country that had formerly been part of the former Soviet Union; more equipment; more training facilities; and a much better infrastructure. It was clear that the Brigade was in very good shape.

After spending the night in Aktau, we were off early the next morning, again on an AN-26 aircraft via Aktobe to Astana. We landed at the international airport and immediately boarded our commercial flight back to the UK – backtracking to cross back over the Caspian Sea! If this was confusing for us Brits, spare a thought for either our Turkish or Canadian Guest Inspector who had seen rather too many time zones for comfort in the space of just a few days. But that is very much part of the life of an Arms Control Inspector, and a very interesting one it is too. Though in the United Kingdom Agency, JACIG, we tend to change over much more quickly than in most other countries, I still feel we get plenty of opportunity to inspect, to escort and to meet and better understand our colleagues from nearly all European and Central Asian States. Where this helps build trust and defuse potential difficulties or misunderstandings, it strikes me as well worth the while.