ALMA ATA, Kazakhstan, July 17 (Xinhua) -- A group of Kyrgyz military personnel had ended their training program in Turkey, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), as part of the NATO's Partnership for Peace, the Kyrgyz Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.

　　Du ring a brief visit to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan last weekend, NATO Secretary General George Robertson urged closer cooperation with the two Central Asian countries to jointly combat terrorism.

　　Both of these moves demonstrate that the NATO is accelerating its efforts to expand its military presence in the former Soviet area.

　　"The attacks on New York and Washington in 2001...were planned and organized in Central Asia, in Afghanistan," Robertson said after meeting with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

　　"Terrorists confront free society in a way that we have never seen before," he said. "We must therefore have a common united front against terrorism."

　　Under the pretext of fighting terrorism following the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the United States has deployed its troops in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and sent military instructors to Georgia to help train special task forces.

　　Robertson's visit came at a time when the NATO is expected to take over the leadership of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan in August.

　　During his visit in Kazakhstan, Robertson exchanged views with Nazarbayev on regional security, bilateral military cooperation and post-war reconstruction in Afghanistan and Iraq.

　　"If there is to be security in the new world we must have more military cooperation," said the NATO chief. "Central Asia is now going to be very much part of NATO's agenda."

　　Robertson called Kazakhstan "a good friend and close partner" of the NATO and praised it for its recent decision to contribute 25 special forces to a Polish-led peacekeeping mission in Iraq.

　　While meeting with Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev, Robertson said Central Asia and the NATO have "a single mission, tackling the new security challenges of the 21st century -- terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction."

　　There is a realistic need to strengthen cooperation between the two sides within the framework of the NATO's Partnership for Peace (PFP) program, which provides for increased cooperation including joint exercises, Robertson said.

　　As Central Asian nations have played an important role in fighting terrorism, the NATO is willing to provide them with assistance in the fields of peacekeeping, anti-terrorism and disaster relief, he said.

　　It is believed that Central Asian countries have the will all along to deepen relations with the NATO. As members of the PFP program, which excludes neutral Turkmenistan, these countries expect to secure economic aid, boost their military capabilities and ensure the diversity of their foreign policy through cooperation with the NATO.

　　Prior to the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States, NATO foreign policy focused on eastern Europe and the Transcaucasian region. But as the anti-terror campaign developed complications, the NATO began leaning toward Central Asia in its foreign policy.

　　In May, the NATO and Central Asian countries held joint exercises on dealing with emergencies in the Fergana Valley, located between Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, pushing their cooperation to a new level.

　　However, Russia still stands in the way of the NATO's eastward expansion although the NATO-Russia Council was established in May and a new NATO-Russia relationship has been achieved following major comprises from Russia.

　　Through diplomacy and military cooperation in the past year or more, Russia has retaken the lead in Central Asia.

　　Russia has strengthened cooperation in collective security with Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan, among others, as members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) have decided to set up an organization based on a CIS collective security pact.

　　It has also boosted bilateral cooperation with Kazakhstan and resolved border issues between the two sides concerning the demarcation of the Caspian Sea. And the legal procedures to establish permanent Russian military bases in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have been almost completed.

　　Local analysts noted that although the Central Asian region has undergone great changes following the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Robertson's visit was not enthusiastically covered by the two countries' media.

　　The resurgence of Russia's influence in Central Asia has made it tougher for the NATO to squeeze Russia out of the region, they said. End