Tag Archives: international relations

Lithuania dairy exporters use Uzbekistan to skirt round Russia sanctions

MARCH 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Forced to look for alternative markets because of sanctions on Russia and war in Ukraine, Uzbekistan has become a major target for Lithuania’s dairy exports.

In December, dairy exports from Lithuania to Uzbekistan recorded a 19-fold increase compared to the same month in 2013, according to Russia’s Soyuzmoloko, a milk industry group.

Uzbekistan now represents over 12% of the Lithuanian dairy export market, becoming a key target for Lithuanian cheese and butter. Only Poland and Italy now import more dairy products from Lithuania.

Soyuzmoloko said there may be an alternative motive for sending products to Uzbekistan.
“Dairy products exported from Lithuania to Uzbekistan are then sent from Uzbekistan to Russia directly or via Kazakhstan, which is part of the Customs Union,” the Soyuzmoloko said in a note on its website.

The reference to the Customs Union is to an old Kremlin-led economic group. It is now called the Eurasian Economic Union.

While relations between Uzbekistan and the EU have been strained over the past few years because of rows over human rights abuses, Uzbekistan–Lithuania bilateral relations have been improving.

Last year, Lithuania’s foreign minister travelled to Tashkent for direct talks with his Uzbek counterpart.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)

Georgia invites Poroshenko to visit

FEB. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s president Giorgi Margvelashvili invited his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko to visit Tbilisi, a show of support for Ukraine’s pro-West government in their battle with Russia-backed rebels. Georgia has been trying to mend damaged relations with Russia.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015)

Rouhani to visit Ashgabat

FEB. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Iranian president Hassan Rouhani will fly to Ashgabat to meet with Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, media reported quoting a senior Iranian official as saying. Reports didn’t give a precise date for the visit, although it is expected at the end of February or in March.
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(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015)

Tajik migrants head home

FEB. 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The falling rouble has persuaded up to half of St Petersburg’s Central Asian casual work force to return home, the AFP news agency reported.

St Petersburg’s deputy governor, Igor Albin, reportedly said that 50% of the snow sweepers, normally from Central Asia, had left the city.

AFP’s correspondent in St Petersburg directly quoted the head of a snow sweeping company who gave similar insight, although with a lower percentage heading home.

“Almost 30% of the workers who left to spend New Year’s as usual with their families in Uzbekistan or Tajikistan have not come back,” he said.

Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are most vulnerable to this trend. Tajikistan holds the dubious position as the country that is most reliant on remittances. These make up about 50% of its total GDP.

The Tajik Central Bank has tried to prop up its currency against the falling Russian rouble although it has warned that inflation is creeping up.

In Dushanbe, an immigration official told AFP that only half the number of Tajiks were leaving to take jobs abroad this year, compared to the same period in 2013.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015)

Uzbekistan to send car parts to Brazil

FEB. 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — A car plant factory in Uzbekistan has started producing parts for cars in Brazil, media reported. UzSungwoo is an Uzbek-Korean joint venture. It was set up to produce parts for GM’s plant in Uzbekistan. Demand has dropped at the GM plant because of an economic crisis, possibly triggering UzSungwoo to sell to Brazil.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015)

EU rights envoy flies to Baku

FEB. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The EU’s special envoy for human rights, Stavros Lambrinidis, flew to Azerbaijan for a visit that is expected to culminate in a critical evaluation of the Azerbaijani government. Human rights groups urged Mr Stavros to use his trip to pressure the authorities into releasing various prisoners.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015)

Turkmenistan offers to host Afghan peace talks

MARCH 18 2015 (The Bulletin) – Turkmenistan has offered to host talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government, Pakistan’s Express Tribune newspaper reported. Sapar Berdiniyazov, a senior Turkmen diplomat, said: “If the Afghan parties ask us, Turkmenistan is available as a venue for the talks.” If Ashagbat did ever host peace talks it would significantly raise its international profile.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)

Lukoil invests in Uzbekistan

FEB. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian energy company LukOil said that along with a consortium headed by South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering it had won a contract to build a gas processing plant in the Kandym region of south Uzbekistan. LukOil did not say how much the project would cost but it did say that it was its largest investment in Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)

France seizes Karimova’s property

FEB. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The French authorities have seized properties worth millions of euros belonging to Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of Uzbek president Islam Karimov, media reported. One of the properties was an estate near Paris which had its own opera house. Ms Karimova, once a potential presidential successor, is under house arrest in Tashkent.
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(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)

Turkmenistan criticises Russia

>>Criticism comes after Russia cuts Turkmen gas imports>>

FEB. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan has criticised Russia as an unreliable gas partner, hinting that it was moving away from its traditional energy alliance with Moscow and was instead looking for new clients and markets.

Ties between Turkmenistan and Russia have been increasingly strained and, perhaps, the Kremlin’s shadow boxing with the West in eastern Ukraine persuaded it to issue the harshly worded statement and speed up its search for new clients.

“Gazprom and its affiliates periodically violate agreements at interstate, intergovernmental and interdepartmental level, leading to the view that unfortunately the major energy company is an unstable partner,” the AFP news agency reported quoting an article on the website of Turkmenistan’s oil and gas ministry.

Earlier this year, Gazprom said that it was cutting imports of gas from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan by up to two-thirds.

Like other countries in the region, Turkmenistan has been trying to deal with the fallout from the decline in the value of the rouble and also the fall in energy prices. President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has ordered his energy executives to search for more clients.
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(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)