Letter from Germany: For Europe, ever-shifting lines in the drive for oil - International Herald Tribune

Letter from Germany: For Europe, ever-shifting lines in the drive for oil - International Herald Tribune:

"Letter from Germany: For Europe, ever-shifting lines in the drive for oil
Letter from Germany

BERLIN: Next week, Germany's foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and other European Union diplomats travel to Kazakhstan to meet their counterparts from the Central Asian republics.

Ruled by more or less authoritarian leaders who have often displayed scant regard for Western concepts of human rights or the rule of law, Central Asia never really figured on the radar screens of the EU or Germany until after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America."