Tag Archives: arms

Armenia to receive arms from Russia

MAY 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Hovik Abrahamyan, Armenia’s PM, said Russia had started delivering arms as part of a deal worth $200m. The arms deal was announced a few days after Armenian leader Serzh Sargsyan and Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev met for the first time since fighting broke out between the two neighbours around the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in April.

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(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

US sends military to Georgia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan

MARCH 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are among the three most dependent countries on US aid to pay for their military, the eurasianet.org website reported by quoting a Washington lobby group. In 2014, Georgia received $158m of US military aid, out of a total budget of $387m; Tajikistan received $29m of US aid out of $104m in total and Kyrgyzstan received $90m out of a total military budget of $252m.

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(News report from Issue No. 271, published on March 11 2016)

Azerbaijan’s row over weapons

MARCH 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian deputy PM Igor Rogozin flew to Baku to meet with Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev for talks over a shipment of weapons which Azerbaijan is apparently refusing to pay for, media reported. It was unclear if Azerbaijan didn’t want to pay for the weapons, as a form of protest over military aid Russia has given to its enemy Armenia, or whether it couldn’t pay because of the worsening impact of the economic slowdown.

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(News report from Issue No. 271, published on March 11 2016)

Armenia receives arms loan

FEB. 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia has agreed to give Armenia a $200m loan to buy weapons from Russian arms manufacturers, media reported. Under the terms of the deal, Armenia will use the loan to pay for Smerch rocket launchers, Igla-S air-defense systems, radar-jamming systems, sniper rifles, and armoured vehicles. Armenia will pay for 10% of the weapons, while Russia’s credit would cover the rest. Armenia is still at war over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The day after the deal was signed, Azerbaijan said that it had made a formal complaint to Russia that its arms deal with Armenia would upset the delicate military equilibrium in the region.

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(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)

Georgia makes military deal with Saudi

JAN. 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s state-owned Delta, which manufactures weapons and other military equipment, said it had secured a deal worth up to 100m lari (around $40m) to build “several dozen” military evacuation vehicles for Saudi Arabia, an important deal in an economically tough environment. Georgia has invested fairly heavily in its defence and military equipment sector.

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(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Kazakhstan sells arms to Jordan

JAN. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan has sold military equipment and weapons to Jordan, Kazakh defence minister Imangali Tasmagambetov said in a statement after a delegation returned from the Middle Eastern country. Mr Tasmagambetov said Kazakhstan Paramount Engineering, a joint venture with South African arms manufacturer Paramount, will supply several Arlan armoured vehicles to Jordan. The joint venture started producing the Arlan armoured personnel carriers last year. It set up the partnership in 2014.

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(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Paramount opens defence plant in Kazakhstan

DEC. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — South Africa’s Paramount, a private company that manufactures equipment for the police and military, opened a new plant in Astana to produce a version of their Marauder armoured personnel carrier. Kazakhstan Paramount Engineering is a joint venture with state-owned Kazakhstan Engineering Distribution. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev attended the opening.

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(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Putin gives Armenia $200m

SEPT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – After meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin at his villa outside Moscow, Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan said that Russia had agreed to give Armenia a loan of $200m to modernise its military. Russia is one of Armenia’s most important allies and keeps a large military base in the country.

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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Tajikistan and India flirt with base deal

DUSHANBE, JULY 12/13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Indian PM Narendra Modi’s grand tour of Central Asia ended with a visit to Tajikistan, once again sparking the decade long rumour that India would lease the Ayni airbase near Dushanbe.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website reported that Mr Modi and Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon visited the Ayni military base 15km outside Dushanbe as well as a 50-bed military field hospital India helped set up last year, ramping up speculation an agreement was about to be signed.

Instead, the two leaders signed far less eye-catching deals on culture and education.

India has been looking to lease an airbase in Central Asia for years.

It helped renovate the air base at Ayni in 2003 but appears to have been blocked from renting the base, possibly by Russia or China, Tajikistan’s close allies.

Earlier on the trip in Russia, Mr Modi had signed a deal for India to join the China and Russia led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) military/economic group focused on Central Asia.

India wants to start competing with China for influence over Central Asia and also for access to its various energy and metal deposits.

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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)

Azerbaijani weapons exports increases

JULY 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Yaver Jamalov, Azerbaijan’s defence industry minister, said he wanted to increase the number of countries that Azerbaijan exported its weapons and ammunition to. Mr Jamalov said he had concluded a deal with Iraq’s government to supply hundreds of grenade launchers and mortars.

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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)