Tag Archives: international relations

Azerbaijan takes over presidency at the UN Security Council

OCT. 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — For the second time, Azerbaijan took over the presidency of the UN’s Security Council on Oct. 1.

Members of the UN Security Council, five permanent members and 10 non-permanent members, hold the presidency for one month at a time. It’s an organisational role but still a prestigious and important one.

Azerbaijan became the third former Soviet state, Russia is a permanent member and Ukraine has been a non-permanent member previously, to sit on the UN Security Council when it was elected as the East Europe region’s representative in 2011. Its term runs from Jan. 1 2012 until Dec. 31 2013.

It may be a rotating position but it is still much coveted. Kyrgyzstan unsuccessfully ran for a position in 2011 and Kazakhstan is openly campaigning for a place.

Azerbaijan held the presidency of the UN Security Council in May 2012. Syria and its chemical weapons will be top of the agenda this time round.

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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Turkmenistan proposes UN meetings

SEPT. 30 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Seeking to carve out a global role for Turkmenistan, Turkmen deputy PM, Rashid Meredov, proposed holding UN meetings next year to discuss disarmament, energy security, transit issues, desertification, and refugees. Mr Meredov suggested that Ashgabat, fittingly, could host the meeting on desertification.

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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Azerbaijan conducts peacekeeping operation in Afghanistan

OCT. 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A fresh unit of soldiers from Azerbaijan flew to Kabul for peacekeeping duties alongside a Turkish contingent. Media said there were 94 Azerbaijani soldiers in Afghanistan, part of the US-led coalition military fighting the Taliban. Their main roles are to guard the TV tower in Kabul and carrying out various patrols.

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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Uzbekistan sends more cotton to China

SEPT. 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan has tripled cotton fibre exports to China to 300,000 tonnes, about half its total production, media reported.

The move is a snub to European and US buyers which have been lobbying to force Uzbekistan to drop its use of children to pick the cotton. It’s also another indicator of the deepening reach of China in Central Asia.

Cotton is important to Uzbekistan. It harvests around 3.3m tonnes of raw cotton a year and is the world’s second largest exporter.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s tour of Central Asia last month had focused on energy supplies and security issues. This deal, though, was apparently secured when he was in Tashkent.

After China, Bangladesh and South Korea are the biggest buyers, underlining how little leverage the West has with Uzbekistan over its cotton harvest.

The West’s push to stop Uzbekistan using children to pick cotton does, though, appear to have had some impact. Reports from Uzbekistan at the start of the cotton picking season said that the state-run plantations had now stopped employing school children to pick the cotton.

In September Uzbek authorities also allowed a team of monitors from the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO) in the country to observe the cotton harvest, although human rights groups said they were still worried that the observers would only be allowed a blinkered view.

Their official report is widely anticipated.

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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Georgia becomes holiday destination for Iraqis and Iranians

BATUMI/Georgia, OCT. 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The rain lashed down. It turned Batumi’s roads into streams and sent tourists scuttling for cover. Sudden downpours are part of the summer scene at this resort town on Georgia’s Black Sea coast but it still takes unsuspecting tourists by surprise.

And it’s an eclectic mix of tourists. There are Georgians, Russians, Kazakhs and other tourists from the former Soviet Union, as well as Western backpackers and businessmen.

Then there are the Iraqis and Iranians. Georgia’s tourism agency said 10,811 Iraqis and 11,032 Iranians entered the country in August. After visitors from the former Soviet Union and Turkey, Iraqis and Iranians are the two biggest groups.

An investigation by the Wall Street Journal earlier this year said Iranian businessman, who until recently didn’t need a visa to enter Georgia, were setting up Georgian companies to avoid US sanctions. Possibly, but many Iranian and Iraqi visitors are going to Georgia to holiday.

There are now direct flights to Tbilisi from Tehran, Baghdad, Erbil in Kurdish Iraq and Basra on the Iraqi Persian Gulf. From Tbilisi, Batumi is an easy five hours by train.

In central Batumi three rather rotund Iraqi men had taken advantage of a break in the rain to dash into a barber shop. They grinned and sat down to wait their turn.

“Georgia is great. Very calm and relaxing,” one of the men said.

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(Correspondent’s Notebook from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Border tensions rise between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan

OCT. 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek soldiers are expected to withdraw from disputed territory on the border with Kyrgyzstan, media reported. Local Kyrgyz accused the Uzbek soldiers of occupying the land days earlier. Tension has been rising on the Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan border for the past year.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Most refugees in Azerbaijan are Afghans

SEPT. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Most of the 1,520 refugees seeking asylum in Azerbaijan are from Afghanistan, Elsever Agayev, an Azerbaijani official at the UN, said. Mr Agayev’s comments were a rare insight into refugees in Azerbaijan. After Afghans, the biggest number of asylum seekers are from Chechnya, which is part of Russia, and Iran.

(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

‘Kardashian bond’ launched in Armenia

SEPT. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kim Kardashian, the 32-year-old Los Angeles-based ethnic Armenian, is best known across the globe for starring in a reality TV show. Now she’ll also be known, in some circles at least, for lending her name to Armenia’s inaugural sovereign debt issue.

Armenia’s $700m Eurobond issue on Sept. 23, unofficially dubbed the ‘Kardashian bond’, did rather well. This was Armenia’s first sovereign debt issue and a real test of investors’ confidence in the country and appetite for risk in the South Caucasus.

Armenia’s government had said it needed to raise the cash to pay back a $500m loan it borrowed from Russia in 2009 to weather the global financial crisis.

It’s been a busy, somewhat controversial, year for Armenia with a disputed presidential election in February and a surprise decision last month to eschew closer ties with the EU to instead join Russia’s Customs Union. The economy, too, has caused some concern with inflation hovering around 9%, far above the Central Bank’s target.

Regardless, investors warmed to Armenia’s Kardashian bond and the initial yield on the 7-year bond was shortened to 6.25% from 6.375%, according to Reuters.

Not a bad debut on the sovereign debt market for Armenia and Kim Kardashian.

(News report from Issue No. 153, published on Sept. 25 2013)

Kazakhstan mulls dropping visa requirements for EU countries

SEPT. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — From summer 2014 Kazakhstan will drop visa requirements for tourists from some EU countries, media quoted Kazakh deputy foreign minister Rapil Zhoshybayev as saying. Mr Zhoshybayev said visa-free regulations were likely to cover countries, such as Croatia, where Kazakh citizens can travel to without a visa.

(News report from Issue No. 153, published on Sept. 25 2013)

South Korea wins contract in Kazakhstan

SEPT. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — South Korea’s GS Engineering & Construction Corp has won a $1.4b contract to build the second phase of a petrochemical plant in Kazakhstan, it said. The contract was awarded by Kazakhstan LG Poly Ethylene, a joint venture between SAT & Co and LG Chem ltd.

(News report from Issue No. 153, published on Sept. 25 2013)