Disputes - international:
Kazakhstan and China have resolved their border dispute and are
working to delimit their large open borders to control population
migration, illegal activities, and trade; delimitation of boundary
with Russia is scheduled for completion in 2003 - delimitations with
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are complete with demarcations underway
- delimitation with Kyrgyzstan is largely complete; equidistant
seabed treaties have been signed with Azerbaijan and Russia in the
Caspian Sea but no resolution has been made on dividing the water
column among any of the littoral states; no resolution of Caspian
seabed boundary with Turkmenistan
Illicit drugs:
significant illicit cultivation of cannabis for CIS markets, as
well as limited cultivation of opium poppy and ephedra (for the drug
ephedrine); limited government eradication of illicit crops; transit
point for Southwest Asian narcotics bound for Russia and the rest of
Europe