JUNE 4 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Tashkent for talks with his Uzbek counterpart Islam Karimov. Local media reported that Mr Putin and Mr Karimov discussed strengthening relations and in particular boosting security ties.
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(News report from Issue No. 091, published on June 8 2012)
JUNE 7 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Matt Bryza, the US’s former special envoy to the South Caucasus, has joined Turcas, a Turkish oil firm with close links to Azerbaijani state energy company SOCAR, media reported. Last year US Senators declined to sanction Mr Bryza’s appointment as permanent US ambassador to Azerbaijan over worries he was too close to the Azerbaijani authorities.
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(News report from Issue No. 091, published on June 8 2012)
JUNE 6 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – China had a gift for its Central Asia partners who attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Beijing on June 7.
It had set up a new $10b fund through its Export-Import Bank to loan to its neighbours. Of course there are strings attached and the fund will buy China yet more impact in the region.
It already has a huge amount of clout, much of the region’s energy resources heads east and rarely a week passes without new deal being announced, but China still clearly wants more from Central Asia.
The first big deal announced by China from its new fund was a $1.1b loan to help pay for a refit of its refinery near Atyrau in western Kazakhstan, media reported.
Reuters published figures that showed just how deeply China has invested over the past few years. According to Kazakhstan, China has invested $15b into the country since 1991, a tenth of all foreign investment. Roughly $10b of that, though, has come since 2008 and now, according to Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev about 20% of all its energy exports will flow to China.
The rest of Central Asia has also seen a massive boost in Chinese investments over the past few years, a trend that looks set to continue.
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(News report from Issue No. 091, published on June 8 2012)
JUNE 6 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Ahead of a meeting of heads of states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) members in Beijing, Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon signed a number of deals with China, media reported. The deals will ensure a road is built from China across Tajikistan and grant a Chinese company copper exploration rights.
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(News report from Issue No. 091, published on June 8 2012)
JUNE 1 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Against the backdrop of one of the most high-profile events staged in post-Soviet Azerbaijan, the Eurovision Song Contest, Baku’s relationship with Tehran has continued to nose-dive.
And it seems that perhaps Eurovision itself is partly to blame. The gay-friendly, kitsch and flippant song contest offended Iran’s sensibilities and last week it withdrew its ambassador from Baku for consultations because of what it described as Azerbaijan’s anti-Iranian and anti-Islamic policies.
Now news reports suggest the Azerbaijani government has ordered its envoy to return to Baku, also for consultations, after Iranian authorities apparently detained two Azerbaijani poets.
The Azerbaijan-Iran relationship has often been fraught, recently because of Azerbaijan’s budding friendship with Israel, Iran’s sworn enemy, and Iranian attempts to meddle in the region.
There have been rows and both sides have sent tetchy protest notes to each other but cutting diplomatic relations pushes relations to a new low that needs to be monitored closely.
Iran has carefully built up relations with Armenia, Azerbaijan’s enemy, and Georgia which means the Azerbaijan-Iran row raises tension across the entire South Caucasus.
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(News report from Issue No. 090, published on June 1 2012)
MAY 21 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iran recalled its ambassador to Azerbaijan, pushing relations between the two neighbours to a new low. Iran said it withdrew its ambassador to Baku because of what it described as Azerbaijan’s anti-Islamic and anti-Iranian policies. Azerbaijan-Iran relations have been strained throughout the year.
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(News report from Issue No. 089, published on May 25 2012)
MAY 16 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Perhaps underlining just how important Russian President Vladimir Putin views relations with Kazakhstan, his first overseas mission in his third presidential term will be to visit Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev in Astana on May 25, media reported. Kazakhstan is part of the Eurasian Union with Russia and Belarus.
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(News report from Issue No. 088, published on May 18 2012)
MAY 17 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan formally expressed concern to the Iranian government at a series of protests outside its consulate in Tabriz, northern Iran, local media reported. Relations between Azerbaijan and Iran have been increasingly strained this year after police in Baku arrested alleged Iranian agents.
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(News report from Issue No. 088, published on May 18 2012)
APRIL 27 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a two-day official visit to Belarus, Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko pledged to work together to improve human rights, local media reported. Human rights groups have described both Turkmenistan and Belarus as repressive.
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(News report from Issue No. 086, published on May 4 2012)
APRIL 24 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov flew to Dushanbe for talks with Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon on extending a lease for Russia’s military base. Negotiations have stumbled on the cost and length of the lease extension. No deals were announced but media quoted both sides as saying talks will accelerate.
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(News report from Issue No. 085, published on April 27 2012)