Tag Archives: international relations

Kazakh art depicts Crimea as part of Russia

ASTANA, JUNE 12 2017 (The Bulletin) — Ukraine sent an official complaint to the Kazakh foreign ministry after it emerged that an art exhibition set up for the start of EXPO-2017 showed Crimea to be a part of Russia.

Russia annexed Crime in 2014 but the international community, including Kazakhstan, has not recognised the landgrab. Instead it still refers to Crimea as part of Ukraine.

The offending exhibition was based on rows of globes each depicting a country taking part in EXPO- 2017. The Russia globe clearly shows that it owns the Crimean Peninsular while the Ukraine globe is bereft of its former territory.

“The festival Astana Art Fest map of Ukraine showed signs of the violation of territorial integrity,” the Ukraine embassy wrote on Facebook. “The Ukrainian side expects the Kazakh ministry of foreign affairs to clarify the action.”

The Kazakh foreign ministry has not publicly commented.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

EBRD to find solar park in Kazakhstan

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JUNE 15 2017 (The Bulletin) — The EBRD is set to finance the construction of a second solar power park in southern Kazakhstan, media reported. The EBRD will give a loan of $45m for the solar power park, the Clean Technology Fund will give $10m and the owners of the field, not named by media, will stump up another $80m. After the construction of Burnoye Solar 2, it will constitute one of the biggest solar power fields in Europe or Central Asia.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Kyrgyzstan should drop charges against journalist, says CPJ

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JUNE 9 2017 (The Bulletin) — The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said that Kyrgyzstan’s National Security Committee should drop charges against Ferghana News journalist Ulughbek Babakulov that an article he wrote on a knife fight in May was designed to ignite racial hatred. Mr Babakulov has fled the country and has said that his reporting was based on Facebook posts of the fight in the south of the country between ethnic Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks and that the security services were trying to cover up any suggestion of ethnic tension.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Tajik President flies to Yerevan

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JUNE 14 2017 (The Bulletin) — Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon flew to Yerevan for a state visit, a relatively rare foray into the South Caucasus. At a joint press conference Mr Rakhmon and his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan promises to boost bilateral ties, including setting up a direct flight between the two capitals.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Uzbekistan considers weapons purchase

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JUNE 15 2017 (The Bulletin) — Uzbek defence minister Atabek Ibadullayev travelled to Kazakhstan to tour weapons plants in Uralsk which produce armoured vehicles and optical rifles sites. Kazakhstan’s ministry of defence then released a statement which said that although Uzbekistan hadn’t yet purchased any weapons, Mr Ibadullayev had expressed an interest. Kazakh-Uzbek military ties are improving.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Russia conducts missile test in Kazakhstan

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JUNE 16 2017 (The Bulletin) — Russia’s military carried out a successful test on its new interceptor missile at the Sary-Shagan missile test site in Kazakhstan, the TASS news agency reported. Russia and Kazakhstan have boosted military cooperation over the past few years, including sharing a missile defence system. TASS quoted a Russian defence report as saying that the new missile will improve Russia’s defences.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Georgian second unit joins NATO military response force

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JUNE 12 2017 (The Bulletin) — A second Georgian infantry unit of 100 men is set to join NATO’s Response Force, the Western military alliance’s primary early response mechanism, media reported. Georgia’s is eager to join NATO and has had an infantry unit on NATO’s Response Force since 2015.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

UN chief’s visit disappoints human rights activists

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ALMATY, JUNE 15 2017 (The Bulletin) — UN Security general Antonio Guterres completed a tour of all five Central Asian states, his first since taking the job six months ago, although human rights activists complained that he had taken too soft a line on a regional crackdown of journalists and dissenters.

Mr Guterres’ main message was that the governments of the region need to remain engaged with international organisations to reach their full potential.

“Kazakhstan has been a symbol of dialogue, a symbol of peace, a symbol of the promotion of contacts between cultures, religions and civilizations; and with its presence in the (UN) Security Council, an extremely important dimension in mediation, in relation to conflict,” he said in Astana.

In Ashgabat, a few days later, after attending a counter-terrorism conference Mr Guterres, a former Portuguese PM and UN high commissioner for refugees, took a tougher line on rights.

“Upholding the rights of freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly in this region are fundamental to countering the threat that violent extremism poses,” he said.

Even so, with media freedoms and human rights on the retreat in the region, after a series of arrests of journalists and a crackdown on workers’ unions, activists accused Mr Guterres of going soft on the issue in favour of developing nodes of engagement.

Hugh Williamson, director of the Central Asia division at New York- based Human Rights Watch, said Mr Guterres had failed to meet members of local civil rights movements on his tour of the region and that describing Kazakhstan as a “pillar of stability” and Kyrgyzstan as a “pioneer of democracy” was sending out the wrong message.

“Central Asian leaders also pay close attention to what high-level visitors like Guterres focus on, also in public,” he said in a statement.

“Not only did Guterres fail to set clear expectations on human rights improvements across Central Asia, his praise for his largely authoritarian audience risks sending the message that trampling over human rights is fine.”

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Kazakh Parliament approves aid deal

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JUNE 14 2017 (The Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s parliament ratified a deal to give Kyrgyzstan $100m of aid to help adapt to Eurasian Economic Union regulations for animal sanitary and customs procedures, media reported. Kyrgyzstan has previously complained that Kazakhstan was deliberately causing problems on its shared border.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Kazakh and Uzbek ties improving

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JUNE 16 2017 (The Bulletin) — On the sidelines of the Astana Economic Forum, Kazakh deputy foreign minister Roman Vassilenko said that there had been positive developments in bilateral relations with Uzbekistan since Shavkat Mirziyoyev took over as president in 2016. “Since September last year there have been positive developments with Kazakhstan and its relations with Uzbekistan,” he told journalists at a briefing. Mr Mirziyoyev has made improving relations with neighbours, tense under his predecessor Islam Karimov, a cornerstone of his presidency.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)