Tag Archives: international relations

EaEU membership promises cheaper mortgages for Kyrgyz

JULY 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Speaking at a ceremony where government staff received free housing, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev said that $100m of a $1.2b fund from Russia designated for Kyrgyzstan’s Customs Union entry would go towards a pot for cheap credit for citizens looking to buy homes.

“Having a roof over your head means having freedom and happiness,” said Atambayev at the ceremony. Kyrgyzstan may formally enter the economic alliance, which is set to become the Eurasian Economic Union, as early as autumn this year.

Housing is a politicised issue in Kyrgyzstan, with illegal land grabs affecting the country’s two main cities, Bishkek and Osh. Poor rural migrants have formed new settlements, often unconnected to municipal services like electricity, stretching for miles beyond both cities.

The Customs Union is also a highly politicised issue and Mr Atambayev has been at pains to emphasis the benefits of tighter relations with Russia and the joint Kyrgyz-Russian fund. With a start-up capital of $500 million in Russian credits, the fund has been heralded as a means to strengthen Kyrgyzstan’s industrial capacity and move it away from an economic model structured on re-exporting cheap Chinese goods.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)

Tajik FM visits UK

JULY 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a visit to London, Tajik foreign minister Sirodjidin Aslov met with his British counterpart William Hague. Tajikistan and Britain have been cultivating close relations but the arrest on spying charges of a Tajik researcher linked to Exeter University in June has strained ties.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)

Kyrgyzstan deported Chinese workers

JUNE 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s authorities have deported 25 Chinese migrants for working illegally at an oil refinery in Tokmak in the north of the country after a fight with their Kyrgyz co-workers, media reported. The incident highlights lingering tensions between Chinese workers and locals in Central Asia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)

Kyrgyzstan EaEU membership good for migrants’

JUNE 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – From 2015, except for members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EaEU), migrant workers from the ex-Soviet Union will only be allowed to work in Russia if they carry a passport and not just an ID card. Kyrgyzstan wants to join the EaEU which includes Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)

Georgia-Russia road to rebuild

JUNE 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in the south Russian region of Dagestan have agreed to rebuild a road that runs from Makhachkala on the Black Sea to Georgia, media reported. This is another signal relations between Georgia and Russia have improved since a brief war in 2008.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)

Turkmenistan opens embassy in Tbilisi

JUNE 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Highlighting Turkmenistan’s more international outlook, media reported that it would open an embassy in Georgia soon. Since Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov become president in 2007 Turkmenistan has looked to increase its international status. Georgia is part of a South Caucasus gas pipeline network that Turkmenistan wants to use to export to Europe.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)

Ex Armenia PM to be envoy in US

JUNE 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia confirmed the appointment of Tigran Sarkisyan, PM for six years until April, as its ambassador in the US. Mr Sarkisyan resigned in April because reforms to the pension system that his government had suggested were deeply unpopular.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)

Georgia signs deal with EU

JUNE 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Alongside Moldova and Ukraine, Georgia signed an important deal to integrate its economy further with the EU.

The Association Agreement is a major step towards Georgia’s end goal of becoming an EU member state.

Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili was under no illusion on the significance of the agreement. It was, he said, an historic moment for Georgia.

“Unofficially we applied for membership today. Officially, it depends on progress that we will make,” he said.

Georgia has been lobbying for membership of the EU and NATO for years. Former President Mikheil Saakashvili managed to antagonise Russia during his push to join the West. Perhaps the new government’s greatest achievement so far has been to pursue its pro-West agenda while also keeping relations with Russia amicable.

Importantly, signing the Association Agreement has the potential to rock relations with Russia. It was this deal, initially put forward in November last year, that Viktor Yanukovoch, then Ukraine’s president, declined to sign, triggering protests that lead to a civil war.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)

Russia FM visits Armenia

JUNE 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, visited Yerevan in a show of support for the Armenian government. Russia is Armenia’s main ally and the Armenian government wants to join the Kremlin-lead Eurasian Economic Union later this year. Pointedly, Mr Lavrov didn’t mention the Eurasian Economic Union during his trip.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)

Georgian rebel region recognises Ukraine rebels

JUNE 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Georgian rebel region of South Ossetia said that it now recognised the Luhansk People’s Republic as an independent state, media reported. Luhansk is a region in east Ukraine were pro-Russia separatists are fighting central government forces. South Ossetia declared independence in 2008 after a war between Russia and Georgia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)