Tag Archives: international relations

Putin says Russia may join TAPI gas project

MOSCOW/DEC. 21 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian President Vladimir Putin hinted at his annual press conference that he be may be willing to support the TAPI project that aims to pump gas from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to India and Pakistan.

Russian support for TAPI would give the project, devised and pushed strongly by Turkmenistan, a major boost. It comes at a time when Russia is mending damaged relations with Turkmenistan. Gazprom has said it will resume imports of gas from Turkmenistan for the first time since 2016.

At the televised annual press conference, Mr Putin said: “As far as we can, we will contribute to this process (building a stable Afghanistan), including by developing economic cooperation with Afghanistan, by taking part in various international projects, such as, for example, the TAPI.”

China is currently Turkmenistan’s dominant gas client.

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>>This story was first published in issue 395 of The Conway Bulletin on Dec. 23 2018

Turkmenistan says to re-start gas exports to Russia

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OCT. 10 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan will resume sending gas to Russia in January, Alexei Miller, the Gazprom CEO, was quoted by official Turkmen media as saying on a trip to Ashgabat, giving Turkmenistan’s Pres. Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov a much-needed political boost (Oct. 10).

Turkmen gas exports to Russia were slashed in 2014 during a row over pricing and cut altogether in 2016 during a Russian economic downturn that was triggered by an energy price collapse.

The cut hurt Turkmenistan economically and left it overly reliant on China as its only gas supply client. Its economy has also been hard hit by the drop in energy prices. The economic news coming out of Turkmenistan has been dire, with Mr Berdymukhamedov being forced to cut Soviet-era subsidies on utilities.

Mr Miller said exact details of new gas imports needed to be worked out.

“The intergovernmental agreement between Russia and Turkmenistan on cooperation in the gas sphere is valid until the end of 2018. It was paused for commercial reasons and will be renewed by the end of 2018,” Mr Miller was quoted as saying by official Turkmen media. “In this regard, we discussed the resumption of the procurement of Turkmen gas by Gazprom, which will start in January 2019.”

Analysts speculated on the timing of Russia resuming gas exports from Turkmenistan. Some said that it was linked to Russia’s efforts to dampen the increased lure of gas sales to Europe from the region.

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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018

Putin to launch new nuclear power station in Uzbekistan

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OCT. 9 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian President Vladimir Putin and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev will launch construction of Uzbekistan’s first nuclear power plant on Oct. 19, Russian news agencies reported. The $11b nuclear power plant is to be built in south-central Uzbekistan on the border of the Navoi-Bukhara regions and is likely to start operations by 2028. Importantly, the nuclear power station will also bind Russia and Uzbekistan more closely together.

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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018

Russia says Tbilisi is hosting secret US lab

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TBILISI/Oct. 4 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia accused Georgia of hosting a secret US laboratory that designs and tests biological weapons, an accusation immediately dismissed by Washington as part of a Russian disinformation campaign.

Specifically, Major-General Igor Kirilov, commander of specialist units within Russia’s military trained to counter radiological, chemical and biological attacks, said that illegal experiments had been carried out at the Lugar Center in Tbilisi between 2015 and 2016, killing 73 people.

He based his assessment on documents released in September at a little-reported on press briefing in Moscow by Igor Giorgadze, a pro-Russia fringe politician who was a Georgian government minister 23 years ago.

“The near simultaneous deaths of a large number of volunteers give reason to believe that the Lugar Center was researching a highly toxic and highly lethal chemical or biological agent,” Major-General Kirilov said. “It’s highly likely that the US is building up its military biological potential under the cover of studying protective means and conducting other peaceful research, flouting international agreements.”

Georgia and the US denied the accusations. A Pentagon spokesperson dismissed them as fake news, part of the “Russian disinformation campaign against the West”.

The Lugar Centre was opened in 2013 and is owned by the Georgian government. It is named after former US Senator Richard Lugar and the US embassy said its mission is to research potential biological threats against people and also animals.

Mr Giorgadze is a fringe figure in Georgia. He was made State Security Minister in 1993 but fled to Moscow in 1995 after a failed assassination attempt against the then-president Eduard Shevardnadze. Since then he has dabbled in Georgian politics, promoting a pro-Russia viewpoint. Mr Giorgadze’s detractors, and there are many in Georgia, say he is sponsored by the Russian security services.

Georgia-Russia relations are still mending after a brief war in 2008 over the Georgian breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Georgia wants to join NATO, a policy objective that Russia sees as a threat.

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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018

Chinese PM Li urges SCO to intensify cooperation

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DUSHANBE/ Oct. 15 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a meeting of heads of governments of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states, Chinese PM Li Keqiang said that the group needed to build on the economic progress it has made to turn itself into a trading powerhouse.

Mr Li specifically said that six areas needed more cooperation within the Central Asia-focused group. These were trade, industrial capacity, connectivity, openness, cooperation and common development.“Past experience shows that development cannot be achieved behind closed doors, and opening up is the right way forward,” he said at the meeting in the Tajik capital.

China is the driving force of the SCO, which it co-founded in 2001 with Russia. The other original members are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Pakistan and India joined last year.

China has used the SCO to bolster its resource base in the region and to fund infrastructure projects. Critics of Chinese policy in Central Asia have accused it of grabbing assets through the mechanics of the SCO and its Belt and Road Initiative.

While in Dushanbe, Mr Li also met with Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon. Media reported that both men said that they wanted to intensify bilateral relations. China is Tajikistan biggest foreign investor.

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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018

Turkmenistan allows Tajik trucks to cross to Afghanistan

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OCT. 4 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan has allowed Tajik trucks to cross its territory after a month-long delay, media reported. No explanation was given for the delay but the row had threatened to damage Tajik-Turkmen relations. At one point, the Tajik ambassador in Ashgabat had said that his government would stop cooperating in a high-profile joint railway project linking the two countries to Afghanistan. The Tajik trucks had been carrying goods to and from Afghanistan.

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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018

Armenia hosts franophone summit

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OCT. 11 (The Conway Bulletin) – French President Emmanuel Macron and other leaders from French-speaking countries including Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, travelled to Yerevan for a summit. Even though Armenia is not a French-speaking country it maintains strong links through migration to France. The summit was a political boost for Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan. French President Macron also visited Azerbaijan on this trip to the South Caucasus. Azerbaijan has become increasingly important to Europe because it will pump gas to central Europe via the newly inaugurated Southern Gas Corridor In August, German Chancellor Angela Merkel also visited Baku for talks with President Ilham Aliyev.

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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018

Indian president visits and talks up relations with Tajikistan

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OCT. 7/9 (The Conway Bulletin) – Indian President Ram Nath Kovind visited Tajikistan for talks with his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rakhmon, underlining the interest that India has in the country. India is trying to make inroads into Central Asia, where its main rival China has become a dominant force. Last year India became a full member of the China and Russia-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) which is focused on Central Asia.

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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018

Uzbekistan ditches visas for French citizens

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OCT. 6 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan waived visa requirements for French citizens ahead of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s trip to Paris on Oct. 8/9. At their meeting, Mr Mirziyoyev, who was visiting the European Union as Uzbek leader for the first time, and Mr Macron talked up their cooperation and pledged to deepen bilateral relations.

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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018

Russian envoy talks up business relations with Armenia

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OCT. 15 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a press conference in Yerevan, Russia’s trade representative to Armenia, Andrey Balko, talked up business and economic relations between the two neighbour. He said that bilateral trade has increased by 26% this year and that 3/4 of all businesses in Armenia were linked to or owned by Russians. Analysts have said that a revolution in April and May that propelled Nikol Pashinyan into power in Armenia as PM may have damaged Armenian- Russian relations.

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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018