My final OSCE report has just been published. I was appointed in 2010 by the Kazakh Presidency of the OSCE as Personal Representative of the Chairman in Office responsible for the ecology and environment of Central Asia. This massive 350 page report covers and looks for solutions to all of the environmental disasters which have afflicted the five Central Asian republics, such as the desiccation of the Aral Sea, the Soviet nuclear tests legacy in the Semipalatinsk region of East Kazakhstan and the uranium tailings dumps. In respect of the highly sensitive upstream/downstream water issues and the role played by Tajikistan, the report is both positive and optimistic. Skirmishes with drug smugglers crossing illegally from Afghanistan occur regularly, as Tajikistan is the first stop on the drugs route from there to Russia and the West. Tajikistan has also resisted attempts by Islamist rebels to operate training camps on its territory. In my own visit to the country I was impressed by the level of internal security and I believe President Rahmon must be congratulated on his efforts to maintain stability and security and should be widely supported by the West for his efforts to maintain Tajikistan as a strategic buffer state, preventing the incursion of drug smugglers and terrorists from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

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