Tag Archives: international relations

Uzbek security chief comes out of the shadows

OCT. 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A visit by Uzbek security chief Rustam Inoyatov caused a stir. Not because a senior Uzbek official visited Beijing, such trips have become fairly commonplace over the past five years or so as China extends its influence in the region, but because of a photo from the meeting.

At the meeting on Oct. 14, Mr Inoyatov is pictured shaking the hand of Meng Jianzhu, head of political and legal affairs of the Central Committee. This is effectively a ministerial position.

The photo showed a thick-set 70-year-old Mr Inoyatov with barely a fleck of grey in his hear.

It’s also the first publicly available picture of Mr Inoyatov for some years. Searches across the internet only yielded grainy or blurred shots.

The picture is symbolic. Mr Inoyatov has been accused of being behind the campaign to purge Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of President Islam Karimov, of power. This picture may represent him, literally, coming out of the shadows.

Another theory about the picture is that it shows that Mr Inoyatov and Mr Karimov are putting on a show of force to Russia and a warning that it should not try to destabilise elections planned for 2015.

The photo suggests that Uzbekistan and China have grown increasingly close and that Russia risks being left behind as a bystander.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)

Georgian President to visit Japan

OCT. 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Looking to secure more foreign direct investment (FDI), Georgian president Giorgi Margvelashvili travelled to Japan on a state visit. During his five day trip Mr Margvelashvili will meet with Japanese Emperor Akihito and PM Shinzo Abe, Georgia is heavily reliant on FDI.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)

Iran leader to visit Azerbaijan

OCT. 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani will visit Azerbaijan later this year or the start of 2015, media reported, another sign that relations between the two neighbours are improving. Relations between Azerbaijan and Iran have improved since Mr Rouhani came to power.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)

Turkmenistan declares year of neutrality

OCT. 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s Council of Elders, a sort of perfunctory rubber-stamping chamber of deputies which confers some sort of plurality on President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov’s decisions, declared 2015 at the Year of Neutrality.

The declaration itself is fairly standard but it is important as a reminder that Turkmenistan follows a strictly neutral policy.

This means that while other countries in former Soviet Central Asia are becoming increasingly involved in the Russia-led Customs Union — Kazakhstan is already a member, Kyrgyzstan is on the brink of signing up and Tajikistan is eager — Turkmenistan won’t be joining them.

It also, according to the doctrine, will prevent Turkmenistan from taking sides over potential disputes over ownership of the Caspian Sea and its riches. This is important as tension between the Caspian Sea littoral states has been rising over the past few years.

And then there is also the small matter of the Taliban to consider. They have been increasing their activity around the borders of Central Asia recently, pressuring

Turkmenistan, even, into strengthening is border security.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)

Kazakhstan to enter WTO

OCT. 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan will have cleared all the hurdles to their eventual accession into the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by the end of the year, media quoted deputy PM Bakytzhan Sagintayev as saying. This is important as Kazakhstan has been negotiating entry to the WTO since the 1990s.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)

Kazakhstan signed extradition treaty with Italy

OCT. 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh lower house of parliament ratified an extradition treaty with Italy, media reported, part of a process by Kazakhstan to update its legal treaties. Last year, Kazakhstan illegally transferred the wife of the then fugitive businessman Mukhtar Ablyazov from Rome.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)

Kazakh President signs EU deal

OCT. 8-9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev flew to Brussels to sign a deal that will bring Kazakhstan, economically, closer to the European Union.

Concerns, though, over Kazakhstan’s human rights and corruption records threatened to overshadow Mr Nazarbayev’s trip. He is also facing increased pressure over Kazakhstan’s alliance with Russia which is accused of aiding separatist fighters in Ukraine.

European Union and United States sanctions on Russia have hit linked-in economies, including Kazakhstan.

“Sanctions, especially economic ones, are not helpful to anyone neither Europe, nor Kazakhstan or Russia,” Mr Nazarbayev said at a joint press conference with Jose Manuel Barroso, the EU’s outgoing chief.

The EU-Kazakhstan agreement, which took nearly four years to sign, will boost Kazakhstan’s application to enter the World Trade Organisation, enhance energy and security cooperation and air travel links.

The so-called Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement also makes Kazakhstan the European Union’s most important partner both in Central Asia and the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union.

Importantly tariffs remain unchanged as they are central to the Eurasian Economic Union that Kazakhstan is a member of alongside Russia and Belarus.

And this is important. Kazakhstan is trying to play both Russia and the European Union with its self-described multi-vector foreign policy. While Mr Nazarbayev talked with the European Union, Kazakh senators in Astana ratified a new Eurasian Economic Union treaty.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 204, published on Oct. 15 2014)

Armenia signed EaEU deal

OCT. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – As expected, Armenia signed a deal in Minsk with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan to join the Eurasian Economic Union. The Eurasian Economic Union will come into effect from Jan. 1 as the successor of the Customs Union. The Kremlin sees the Eurasian Economic Union as a counterbalance to the EU.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 204, published on Oct. 15 2014)

Georgia-Russia relations set to improve

OCT. 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s president Giorgi Margvelashvili has said he wants to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin, Russian news agency Interfax reported. Georgia-Russia relations have improved since a 2008 war. Kremlin intervention in Ukraine, though, has threatened to damage them once again.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 204, published on Oct. 15 2014)

Kyrgyzstan wants Bakiyev extradited

OCT. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s prosecutor-general asked Britain’s visiting minister of state for civil justice Edward Faulks to extradite the son of former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, media reported. Mr Bakiyev was overthrown in a coup in 2010. Since then, both he and his son, Maxim, have been found guilty of various economic crimes.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 204, published on Oct. 15 2014)