Tag Archives: international relations

India buys into Azerbaijani energy projects

MARCH 30 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — As if waking from a deep slumber and noticing nearby riches to grab, India is slowly buying up energy resources in the Caspian Sea region.

On March 29, Sudhir Vasudeva, head of India’s state-owned energy company ONGC, said that its subsidiary ONGC Videsh had completed the purchase of a 2.72% stake in Azerbaijan’s Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil fields in the Caspian Sea and a 2.36% stake in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.

ONGC Videsh bought the stakes from the US oil company Hess for $1b. The deal was announced last year. This deal is important as it marks India’s entry into the Caspian Sea energy race.

India needs more energy and has announced an ambitious expansion plan to match; Central Asia and South Caucasus region is an obvious place to expand in to.

But India is playing catch-up. Chinese, Russian and Western energy companies are already entrenched in the region.

That said, India has unveiled impressive plans. It is pushing to build a pipeline from gas fields in Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to south Asia and it has agreed a $5b deal to buy an 8.4% stake in Kashagan, in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea, from US’s Conoco Phillip.

Kazakhstan has yet to approve the Kashagan deal but India’s Caspian Sea intentions are clear.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 130, published on April 5 2013)

Ukraine extradites Tajik citizen

APRIL 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Ukraine snubbed Tajikistan by releasing, rather than extraditing, former PM Abdulmalik Abdullojonov who is wanted by the authorities in Dushanbe for an alleged assassination attempt on Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon in 1997. Ukrainian authorities detained Mr Abdullojonov, who has been granted refugee status by the US, in February.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 130, published on April 5 2013)

Kazakhstan and Iran in nuclear talks

APRIL 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Negotiators converged on Almaty for a second round of talks aimed at unlocking the issue of Iran’s nuclear programme. These two-day talks are a follow up to negotiations in February. Iran has said that it is developing nuclear capability for civilian purposes but the US suspects that it wants to build a bomb.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 130, published on April 5 2013)

Tajikistan fears instability

APRIL 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon reiterated his concern that NATO’s withdrawal from Afghanistan will destabilise Tajikistan and Central Asia, Reuters reported from a conference in Brussels. NATO plans to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. Tajikistan shares a 1,200km porous border with Afghanistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 131, published on April 12 2013)

Russia’s military exercise strains relations with Georgia

MARCH 28 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered a surprise large scale military exercise in the Black Sea, potentially straining relations with Georgia. Reuters reported that 36 warships and an unspecified number of warplanes would take part in the exercise, designed to show off Russia’s military might.

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(News report from Issue No. 129, published on March 29 2013)

Russia criticises Kyrgyz ORTK cut

MARCH 28 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s embassy in Bishkek issued a terse statement criticising a proposal to cut broadcasts of Russian-language programmes from its ORTK channel. The Kyrgyz government said it was spending too much money on broadcasting ORTK shows but a decision to halt programmes could damage relations with Russia.

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(News report from Issue No. 129, published on March 29 2013)

Uzbek minister discusses relations with US

MARCH 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a telephone conversation, Uzbek foreign minister Abdulaziz Komilov and US secretary of state John Kerry discussed improving cooperation between the two countries, Uzbekistan’s government said. Strategically, Uzbekistan has become increasingly important ahead of NATO’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 127, published on March 15 2013)

Russian visas to be introduced for Central Asia

MARCH 14 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Anvar Azimov, a senior Russian diplomat, suggested that Central Asian nationals will need visas to enter Russia from 2015, media reported. Mr Azimov’s comments caused a stir because the economies of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and, to a lesser extent, Uzbekistan are heavily reliant on remittances from workers in Russia.

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(News report from Issue No. 127, published on March 15 2013)

Uzbek hackers attack Kyrgyz websites

FEB. 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek hackers attacked the websites of various Kyrgyz government ministries and state-owned companies leaving the message “We’re against racism!”, media reported. Tension between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz has been growing in the south of the country since the beginning of the year.

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(News report from Issue No. 125, published on Feb. 22 2013)

UAE President visits Turkmenistan

FEB. 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Underlining the growing importance of Turkmenistan as a regional gas exporter, the president of the UAE, Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, flew to Ashgabat for talks with Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov. Media reported that the two leaders agreed to increase cooperation.

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(News report from Issue No. 125, published on Feb. 22 2013)