JUNE 14 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad joined Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev as a guest at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Astana. China, Russia, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are SCO members.
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(News report from Issue No. 44, published on June 14 2011)
JUNE 4 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen state media quoted President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov saying Turkmenistan’s economy grew by 14.5% between January and May compared to the same period in 2010, Reuters reported. Turkmenistan holds the world’s fourth largest gas reserves. It has sought out more customers this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 43, published on June 6 2011)
JUNE 1 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian gas giant Gazprom nominated Timur Kulibayev, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s son-in-law, to be one of its directors, media reported. Mr Kulibayev has become increasingly powerful. He is considered a potential successor for Mr Nazarbayev and this year he became head of Kazakhstan’s $80b sovereign wealth fund.
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(News report from Issue No. 43, published on June 6 2011)
JUNE 6 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad postponed a trip to Yerevan, media reported without giving a reason. Iran-Armenia ties have strengthened in the last year. Public Radio of Armenia quoted Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi saying that Iran-Armenia trade increased by 38% in 2010.
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(News report from Issue No. 43, published on June 6 2011)
MAY 27 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – During a meeting in Washington, Kazakhstan moved closer to entering the World Trade Organisation (WTO) after it reached an agreement on allowing US services access to the Kazakh market, media reported. Zhanar Aitzhanova, the Kazakh minister for economic integration, said Kazakhstan could possibly join the WTO in 2012.
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(News report from Issue No. 42, published on May 30 2011)
MAY 25 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Insurgents from Afghanistan and a disenfranchised local Muslim population threaten to push Tajikistan towards internal conflict, Brussels-based think tank International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a report. ICG reports are well respected and the warning is one of the starkest yet.
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(News report from Issue No. 42, published on May 30 2011)
MAY 18 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a trip to New Delhi, Uzbek President Islam Karimov signed 34 deals with Indian PM Manmohan Singh on trade, communications, security and energy, media reported. India has heavily increased its presence in Central Asia this year, securing energy deals with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 41, published on May 24 2011)
MAY 19 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia and the other former Soviet states endorsed current Kazakh Central Bank chief, Grigory Marchenko, to replace Dominique Strauss-Khan as head of the IMF. The IMF chief has traditionally been a European but countries from outside Europe are pressurising the IMF to pick an outsider.
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(News report from Issue No. 41, published on May 24 2011)
MAY 15 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Food prices in Tajikistan have risen by about 30% in the last month, RFE/RL reported. Worried about social unrest, US-funded RFE/RL said that the authorities have spent millions stocking up on food and fuel and imposed price caps on meat.
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(News report from Issue No. 40, published on May 17 2011)
MAY 5 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek President Islam Karimov visited Ashgabat for the second time in seven months to sign agreements with Turkmen leader Kurbanguly Berdimukhamedov. Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, both major gas producers, have increasingly worked together to open new markets and leverage more economic power.
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(News report from Issue No. 39, published on May 9 2011)