SEPT. 29 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkish and Azerbaijani shipyards are teaming up to jointly build four warships, the Trend newspaper reported. The deal is yet another indication of the strength of Azerbaijan-Turkey relations. From pictures, the naval ships appeared to be a new class of patrol boats.
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>>This story was published in issue 387 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 1 2018
SEPT. 27 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a flying visit to Baku on the eve of the CIS leaders’ summit in Dushanbe, Russian President Vladimir Putin praised relations with Azerbaijan and talked up their joint investments. He said that Russian companies had created 700 joint ventures in Azerbaijan and had invested $1.5b. Mr Putin has appeared to step up his attention to Azerbaijan over the past few months, just as Azerbaijan readies to start sending gas supplies to Europe through a new pipeline network. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is also a regular visitor to Russia.
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>>This story was published in issue 387 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 1 2018
FEB. 6 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan officially opened a new trade office in Beijing. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had previously said that he wants to boost sales of everything from wine to holidays to Chinese consumers. At the opening of the office, Azerbaijan’s economy minister Shahin Mustafayev said that trade between the two countries had increased by 43% in 2017.
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>>This story was first published in issue 360 of The Conway Bulletin
FEB. 3 (The Conway Bulletin) – Fitch the ratings agency upgraded Azerbaijan’s credit outlook to ‘stable’ from ‘negative’ because it said that oil prices had stabilised and that the country’s macroeconomic picture had improved. Importantly it also said that it expected Azerbaijan’s currency to remain broadly unchanged over the next few years.
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>>This story was first published in issue 360 of The Conway Bulletin
JAN. 31 (The Conway Bulletin) – Perhaps casting admiring glances at its key trading partner Turkey, Azerbaijan said it wants to develop tourism links with Arab states.
Turkey has successfully run a series of advertising campaigns aimed at the Middle East’s growing middle classes who want to spend their disposable income, and time, holidaying along the relatively cool Turkish Black Sea coast and shopping along Istanbul’s streets.
At a signing ceremony to promote tourism in Azerbaijan, Elshan Rahimov, chairman of the Azerbaijan-Arab Countries Cooperation said that Azerbaijan was fast becoming the holiday destination of choice for many discerning Arabs looking for shopping and culture.
He said that last year the number of tourists arriving from Saudi Arabia had increased by 450%, from Oman by 740% and from the UAE by 190%.
The growth in tourism from the Gulf states is also helping to boost Georgia’s tourism to peak levels
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>>This story was first published in issue 360 of The Conway Bulletin
FEB. 5 2018 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev surprised his rivals by bringing forward a presidential election by six months to April 11, immediately triggering accusations that he was abusing his powers.
One of the new clauses inserted into Azerbaijan’s constitution after a contentious referendum in 2016 was that the President could choose the date of an election. Previously the date of presidential elections had been fixed.
Mr Aliyev made the announcement via his website but did not give a reason for bringing the election forward from Oct. 17.
Azerbaijan is regularly lambasted for lacking democratic values. It has arrested dozens of anti-government activists, journalists and opposition-supporting lawyers in the past eight years or so. Most have been imprisoned for financial crimes, smuggling or crossing borders illegally.
The authorities in Azerbaijan say they have snuffed out coup attempts but the opposition counter that the arrests are politically motivated.
And they were quick to criticise Mr Aliyev’s decision to bring forward the presidential election. Jamil Hasanli, head of the opposition National Council of Democratic Forces, said the new election date was “an insult to democracy”.
Mr Aliyev took over from his father as president in 2003. He has extended the length of presidential terms and scrapped a limit on the number of terms a person can serve.
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— This story was first published on Feb. 6 2018 in issue 360 of The Conway Bulletin
JAN. 29 (The Conway Bulletin) – Highlighting both improved relations and also increased demand for trade links between Iran and Azerbaijan, Iran Air said that was going to restart a direct route to Baku after a three year gap. One of the biggest drivers of the improved relations between the two neighbours has been tourism. The number of Iranian tourists, and visitors from other Gulf states, travelling to Azerbaijan has rocketed.
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>>This story was first published in issue 360 of The Conway Bulletin
JAN. 31 (The Conway Bulletin) – The EBRD is considering buying a stake in International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), which is majority-owned by the Azerbaijani government (Jan. 31). Last year the IBA defaulted on loan repayments forcing it to restructure its debts. The EBRD already owns shares in other Azerbaijani banks. Azerbaijan’s government had bought stakes in IBA as a way of bailing it out.
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>>This story was first published in issue 360 of The Conway Bulletin
DEC. 23 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) is on target to deliver the first gas from Azerbaijan by 2020 despite protests from locals in Italy who have said that the $5.3b project will destroy ancient landscapes, Walter Peeraer, the TAP chairman, told Reuters. TAP is the final leg of a pipeline system dubbed the Southern Gas Corridor that central Europe is banking on to deliver gas from the Caspian Sea, reducing its reliance on Russia. The main gas supplier for the $40b Southern Gas Corridor is Azerbaijan’s BP-run Shah Deniz II.
— This story was first published on Jan. 5 2018 in issue 356 of The Conway Bulletin
JAN 3 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia will buy almost 100% of its gas supplies from Azerbaijan this year, officials told local media, completing a total switch from Russia-supplied gas. The announcement is, effectively, a continuation of a policy laid out in May last year when Georgia’s then-energy minister Kakha Kaladze said that Georgia would stop buying Russian gas. He had earlier switched the way that Georgia imported Russian gas from a barter deal to a paid-for deal.
— This story was first published on Jan. 5 2018 in issue 356 of The Conway Bulletin