JUNE 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan concluded a two day trip to Tbilisi by saying the two countries’ different strategies towards Russia and the EU could strengthen their relations. Georgia has chosen closer ties to the EU while Armenia has looked to Russia.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)
JUNE 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – It looks as if Georgia’s ruling party Georgian Dream has completed its clean sweep and defeated former President Mikheil Saakashvilil’s United National Movement (UNM) party in local elections.
Official results have not yet been published from Sunday’s local election but preliminary figures put Georgian dream ahead in most regions.
Overall, victory for Georgian Dream appears emphatic, pulling in 50.8% of the national vote compared to the UMN’s 22.4%, according to the election commission.
Georgian Dream is the party of Georgia’s richest man Bidzina Ivanishvili. It surged to power two years ago in a remarkable parliamentary election in which it defeated a seemingly indomitable UNM.
Last year, Georgian Dream also won a presidential election, propelling Giorgi Margvelashvili to power, and now victory in local governments completes its domination.
The UNM complained that irregularities had tarnished the election but European observers passed it as a legitimate expression of the popular will.
In Tbilisi, the Georgian Dream mayoral candidate will have to compete in a second round vote, but only because he failed, just, to take more than 50% of the votes.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
JUNE 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia and Russia met for their 28th round of talks since the two neighbours fought a war in 2008. The two-day talks in Geneva are an important step towards normalising relations. Georgia- Russia ties have improved since 2012 when the party of Georgia’s former leader Mikheil Saakashvil started to lose power.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
JUNE 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Islamic extremists fighting for the al Qaeda linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have captured 16 Georgians working for an Iraqi telecoms company in Mosul, media quoted the UN as saying. Militants captured Mosul, Iraq’s second city, last week before taking cities nearer Baghdad.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
JUNE 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – TBC Bank became the second Georgian company to list on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) after it raised $240m at an IPO. The IPO valued TBC at around $640m and demonstrated that investors are keen to buy shares in companies in Georgia once again, nearly six years after it fought a brief war with Russia.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
JUNE 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian president Giorgi Margveleshvili flew to Kiev for the inauguration of the new Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, underling Georgia’s support for Ukraine’s fight against pro-Russia separatists. Georgia’s former president Mikheil Saakashvili was also at the ceremony.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 188, published on June 11 2014)
JUNE 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A contingent of 140 Georgian soldiers flew to the Central African Republic (CAR) to support an EU military mission, media reported. The deployment to CAR — where Georgia has no historical, cultural, linguistic or diplomatic links — is designed to promote Georgia’s drive to join the EU.
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(News report from Issue No. 188, published on June 11 2014)
JUNE 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Foreign investment in Georgia jumped to $260m in the first quarter of 2014, a 15% increase from a year earlier, the statistics agency reported. Foreign investment is a vital part of Georgia’s economy. The government has tried to restore investor confidence after two destabilising elections.
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(News report from Issue No. 188, published on JUNE 11 2014)
JUNE 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – So eager is Georgia to show off its impeccable NATO credentials that it has agreed to retain one battalion of roughly 700 soldiers in Afghanistan next year.
Irakli Alasania, Georgia’s defence minister, announced the news after meeting NATO officials in Europe. This will effectively halve Georgia’s commitments in Afghanistan. At its peak Georgia had over 1,600 soldiers in Afghanistan supporting NATO missions. Twenty-nine Georgian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan.
The symbolism is all important. While most NATO member countries are rushing to extract their kit and soldiers from Afghanistan after a long, costly and frustrating campaign, Georgia has applied to remain with the final contingent of US forces.
Georgia is desperate to join NATO, partly as a bulwark against its former colonial overlord Russia with which it fought a brief war in 2008.
But NATO members are being cautious. Although they have shown support for Georgia’s NATO aspirations, and annual military exercises between Georgian and US forces started on June 9, they have also been wary of embracing it too warmly.
Both US President Barack Obama and Herman Chancellor Angela Merkel said that NATO would not offer Georgia membership at its annual conference in Cardiff in September.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 188, published on June 11 2014)
JUNE 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan is not known as a trading powerhouse, its main export is migrant labour to Russia, but a recent low-level diplomatic meeting in Dushanbe once again highlights the importance of its aluminium smelter.
Tajikistan’s deputy transport minister, Sherali Gandjalov and Georgia’s ambassador in the country, Konstantin Zhgenti met to discuss securing trade routes for aluminium exports from TALCO through the South Caucasus trade corridor, Asia-Plus reported.
Mr Gandjalov and Mr Zhgenti specifically discussed the Georgian port of Poti on the Black Sea coast. Poti is a major transit point for raw materials needed for Tajik aluminium production as well as an export route for finished aluminium products heading to European markets.
But all is not well at TALCO, the state aluminium- smelter. It is saddled with debts and last year laid off 20% of its staff as global aluminium prices bottomed out.
These former TALCO staff will most likely be adding to Tajikistan’s most economically successful export — migrant workers to Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 188, published on JUNE 11 2014)