Tag Archives: international relations

The sturgeon disappears from the Caspian

APRIL 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Sturgeon, fish native to the Caspian Sea that produce roe which is better known as caviar, are under threat.

According to Kazakhstan’s deputy Prosecutor-General, Andrei Kravchenko, there will be no sturgeon in the Caspian Sea with four years.

In the last three years, the number of sturgeon in the Caspian Sea has fallen from 3 million to 1.3 million, the Tengrinews website quoted him as saying.

“At a similar rate,” he said. “Sturgeon will be on the brink of extinction in four to five years.”

He blamed energy companies, poachers and official corruption for the drop in numbers.

Caviar is valuable for the Caspian region. Prices in Europe for the delicacy hit thousands of euro for a kilogram.

A few days before Mr Kravchenko’s statement, deputy foreign ministers of the Caspian Sea littoral countries met in Tehran for one of their regular meetings on protecting fish stocks. It’s a talking-shop. The next meeting is scheduled for Baku in September.

Perhaps Mr Kravchenko’s comments were aimed at the deputy foreign ministers.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and Turkey

APRIL 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkey signed up to become a so-called dialogue partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a group led by China and Russia that includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Belarus and Sri Lanka already hold the same status with the SCO but Turkey is a NATO member and that makes its partnership more important. Analysts have often described the SCO as a potential Chinese and Russian-led military rival to NATO.

This analysis of the SCO, though, is too simplistic. The SCO is more than just a security group. It is also a financing organisation and a forum for inter-governmental conversation and debate.

Turkey, too, has deep economic, historical, cultural and linguistic ties with Central Asia, the focus of the SCO’s activities. Turkish senior governments ministers often visit the Central Asia capitals and it is only natural that Turkey should look to become a member in the region’s main security grouping.

Turkey’s interest in the SCO and its promotion as a dialogue partner should be welcomed by all, including NATO.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)

Azeri foreign minister visits Israel

APRIL 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov completed a three day visit to Israel, cementing the two countriesí increasingly close ties. Mr Mammadyarov was the first Azerbaijani foreign minister to visit Israel since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The trip irritated Iran, Azerbaijan’s neighbour.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)

Turkmenistan’s foreign trade doubles

APRIL 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan has doubled its foreign trade figures in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period in 2012, media quoted the Turkmen ministry of economy as saying. Since becoming president in 2007, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has pushed to increase the country’s client base for its huge gas supplies.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)

Kyrgyzstan moves to join Customs Union

APRIL 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian PM Dmitri Medvedev welcomed Kyrgyzstan’s drive to join the Russia-led Customs Union, which already includes Kazakhstan and Belarus, but said the Kyrgyz government still needed to sign a number of documents. Mr Medvedev was talking to press after meeting Kyrgyz economy minister Temir Sariyev in Moscow.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)

Azerbaijan invests in foreign property

APRIL 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — SOFAZ, Azerbaijan’s sovereign wealth fund, aims to spend $1b on property in Australia and Asia this year as it diversifies away from Europe, Shakhmar Movsumov, a senior director, told Reuters. SOFAZ made a splash in the international property market in December when it spent $600m in London, Paris and Moscow.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)

European Parliament criticise Kazakhstan over human rights

APRIL 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The European Parliament adopted a resolution criticising Kazakhstan for not respecting political, media and religious freedoms. Its statement called for the authorities to release the leader of the banned opposition Alga! Party, Vladimir Kozlov, from prison. He was convicted last year for inciting unrest.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)

Azeri foreign minister to visit Israel

APRIL 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan announced that its foreign minister, Elmar Mammadyarov, would visit Israel on April 22, risking further damage to already strained relations with its neighbour Iran. Mr Mammadyarov will become the first Azerbaijani foreign minister to visit Israel since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)

Azerbaijan’s trade with China

APRIL 19 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Underlining China’s increased dominance across the Central Asia and South Caucasus region, a senior Chinese economic official said that trade with Azerbaijan increased by 17.6% in 2012. Zhang Wei, chairman of China’s Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said that China-Azerbaijan trade was worth $1.2b in 2012.

(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)

China could beat India for Kashagan

APRIL 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — China has shown interest in buying shares in the Kashagan oil project in the Caspian Sea, Kazakhstan’s oil and gas minister, Sauat Mynbayev, told reporters, comments that will cause concern in Delhi.

Potentially favouring China over India for a 8.4% stake in Kashagan (that the US oil company ConocoPhillips is selling) would cement Kazakhstan’s relations with its powerful neighbour and confirm Chinese dominance over the Kazakh energy sector.

China owns roughly a third of Kazakhstan’s energy reserves and is building a series of pipelines to ensure Kazakh oil and gas continues to flow east.

For India, losing out on a slice of the Kashagan project, the biggest oil field discovery in 40 years, would be a blow to its stated strategy of expanding its energy reserves abroad. India has been relatively slow to invest in the Caspian region’s energy projects and is trying to play catch-up.

ONGC, the state-owned Indian energy company, thought that it had secured a $5b deal to buy the stake from ConocoPhillips last year.

Kazakhstan, though, has the final say on who owns stakes in Kashagan and its intervention in a deal that India thought, and hoped, was done could be ONGC’s undoing.

Kazakhstan has until the end of May to decide who to award the stake to, or keep it for itself. Mr Mynbayev said simply that the best offer would win.

(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)