Tag Archives: international relations

Hollande to visit Kyrgyzstan

JULY 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — French President Francois Hollande told the new Kyrgyz ambassador to France that he is considering a visit to the Central Asian country in the near term, official media reported. Earlier this month, German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Bishkek, her first to Central Asia. Her stopover in Bishkek en route to a conference in Mongolia was seen as a reward for Kyrgyzstan’s relative democracy.

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(News report from Issue No. 291, published on Aug. 1 2016)

Angolan soldiers get injured in Kazakhstan

JULY 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Ten Angolan soldiers were injured in an explosion during an exercise in Kazakhstan, media reported. The injured soldiers were part of the Angolan team that was scheduled to participate in the International Army Games competition in Kazakhstan next week. It is unclear what caused the explosion.

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(News report from Issue No. 291, published on Aug. 1 2016)

Tajikistan confiscates Iranian products

DUSHANBE, JULY 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Tajikistan have banned the import of dozens of Iranian products, an apparent retaliation for a visit made by Tajik opposition leader Muhiddin Kabiri to Tehran last year.

Mr Kabiri is the exiled leader of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan which had once been the biggest opposition party in the country. It was hounded and broken up last year with most of its leadership imprisoned.

Tajk President Emomali Rakhmon has said that that he wants Mr Kabiri extradited from Europe, where he now lives. Instead, Iran’s leadership invited him to a theology conference last year in Tehran where he met with Iranian religious leader Ayatollah Ali Homanai.

Now, in a possible retaliation, Tajikistan’s government standards agency has said that many Iranian imports do not meet their health standards and don’t carry product descriptions in Tajik. They have been banned.

In Dushanbe, the Tajik Agency for standardisation, metrology, and certification said it had seized 664 tonnes of good from Iran this year.

Ibodullo Kubodiyon, the head of the agency, said at a news briefing that some Iranian companies have stopped importing products to Tajikistan.

“Food products imported by these companies did not meet the established TajikStandart requirements, the products also did not have proper labelling. In particular, there was no description of the goods in Tajik language,” he said.

Tajikistan and Iran have generally made awkward allies. They share cultural and linguistic similarities but their approach to religion differs.

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(News report from Issue No. 290, published on July 22 2016)

Iran boosts gas for Armenia

JULY 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Iran increased gas supplies to Armenia to make up for a drop in Armenian imports from Russia, imposed by repairs to a pipeline crossing Georgia.

The deal highlights the rivalry between Moscow and Tehran for gas supply contracts to Armenia and, more widely, the South Caucasus.

For one month from July 10, repair work will halt gas flows along the Russia-Georgia-Armenia pipeline, Kazak-Saguramo.

Analysts have said the maintenance work on the pipeline from Russia has given Iran a chance to position itself as a reliable alternative supplier of gas.

Armenia imported 818m cubic metres of gas in the first half of 2016 from Russia, a drop of 7.7% from 2015. This is around five times more than Iran currently exports to Armenia.

Levon Yolyan, Armenia’s minister of energy, was due to visit Iran on July 25, to negotiate the gas supplies.

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(News report from Issue No. 290, published on July 22 2016)

Kyrgyz President signs CASA-1000 deals

JULY 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev signed a range of laws that ratify domestic and international agreements on CASA-1000, an electricity transmission project that will send power from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Loans from international lenders, including the World Bank and the Islamic Development Bank, will make up 70% of Kyrgyzstan’s total funding for the project.

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(News report from Issue No. 290, published on July 22 2016)

Uzbek PM warns Tajikistan on dangers of Rogun

JULY 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek PM Shavkat Mirziyoyev complained to his Tajik counterpart over the signing of a $3.9b contract with Italy’s Salini Impregilo to build the Rogun dam and hydropower station on the Vakhsh river.

Uzbekistan has always opposed the project, which it has said will reduce essential water flow from the Pamir mountains to the Amu Darya river which irrigates Uzbek cotton fields.

For Tajikistan, Rogun carries symbolic value, it will be the world’s tallest dam, and is also economically important.

Mr Mirziyoyev said Tajikistan’s stance will trigger a reaction.

“The persistence with which the Government of Tajikistan seeks at all costs to continue construction of the Rogun hydroelectric power station, cannot but cause anxiety for the possible dangerous and irreparable consequences of such risky steps taken by the Tajik side,” he wrote.

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(News report from Issue No. 290, published on July 22 2016)

Tajikistan establishes relations with Ecuador

JULY 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Makhmadamin Makhmadaminov, Tajikistan’s Permanent Representatives to the United Nations, signed an agreement with his Ecuadorian counterpart to establish relations between the two countries. Establishing diplomatic relations with distant countries is a window- dressing exercise for Central Asian and South Caucasus leaders.

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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)

Azerbaijan and Armenia peace talks closer, says Lavrov

JULY 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said that a peace agreement on Nagorno-Karabakh, a region that Armenia-backed forces and Azerbaijan have fought over, could be closer than ever. Mr Lavrov met with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev in Baku a week after meeting Armenia’s foreign minister Eduard Nalbandyan. Russia has mediated between the two governments after clashes erupted in April, breaking a 20-year ceasefire.

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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)

Briefing: Tajikistan’s Rogun dam project

JULY 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — >>Right. Let’s get started. The Rogun Dam. What is it and what is it all about?

>>For Tajikistan and President Rakhmon, the Rogun dam project is vitally important. If it is ever built, and the plans have been knocking around since the Soviet era, the Rogun dam will be the tallest dam in the world at up to 335 m. It will also double Tajikistan’s power generation capacity. The problem is that the dam has proved highly controversial, domestically and internationally, and is also expensive to build.

>>Hang on. Slow down. This is a lot take on. So, Rogun is massive but why is it controversial?

>>It’s controversial because human rights group have accused the government of forcibly moving thousands of people away from the Vakhsh River valley, the area that will be dammed and flooded. The government has also imposed a Rogun dam tax on people to pay for the project. This has gone down badly with human rights groups. Externally, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan’s neighbour, hates the idea of the Rogun dam. It worries that the dam will divert water from irrigating its cotton fields.

>>How serious are Uzbekistan’s concerns?

>>Central Asia is a fragile region. If Uzbekistan is making threatening noises
towards Tajikistan, people need to take notice. Analysts and diplomats have spoken of water wars in Central Asia. I’m not saying that the Rogun dam is going to trigger a war but it is another pressure point that people need to watch.

>>Got it. So with all these obstacles and problems why is Tajikistan pushing for problems?

>>It’s become Rakhmon’s pet project. He probably has another five or ten years left in office and it really feels like he wants and needs the Rogun dam to be his legacy. It’s also become vitally important for Tajikistan’s electricity generation sector. Electricity is becoming an important export commodity for Tajikistan as it has signed up to be the main power generator for the so-called CASA-1000 project.

>>CASA-1000? What is that?

>>It’s the World Bank-backed project to build a power transmission network from Tajikistan to Pakistan. It will cost around $1.2b, cross Afghanistan and be operational, if it all goes to plan, by 2019. The challenge is both security and power generation.CurrentlyTajikistan, and to a lesser extent Kyrgyzstan, doesn’t have the capacity to generate enough power to meet its CASA- 1000 commitments. That’s where Rogun comes in.

>>And the financing? This seems to be an expensive project just when the region is trying to deal with a financial crisis. Where is the finance coming from?

>>Good question. We’re not entirely clear. We’ve only been told that it is a mix of government funds and private investment. Who the private investors are and what their motives are is unknown.

>>I see. So what next?

>>Well, the Tajik government awarded a $3.9b contract to Italian builder Salini Impregilo to start construction work on the dam. We’re still waiting for work to begin but Salini Impregilo has said it will kick off soon. This has been a stop-start project so actually seeing the diggers go in and the workers start to build the dam is important. If this does happen, it’ll dominate news headlines for years to come.

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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)

Norway closes its embassy in Kazakhstan to save money

ALMATY, JULY 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Looking to cut costs Norway closed its embassy in Astana, a blow to Kazakhstan’s self-image as an important international diplomatic player.

Norway’s embassy in Astana had been its only diplomatic mission in Central Asia since it opened in 2009. Now, a single Norwegian diplomat in Oslo will be responsible for Central Asian affairs.

Last December, Astana was listed among four other embassies for closure. These were Sofia (Bulgaria), Lusaka (Zambia) and Harare (Zimbabwe).

Norway’s foreign ministry said cutting the four embassies would reduce its diplomatic presence in the world to 83 countries.

“The ministry must adapt to the changes that are taking place in the world, taking into account the resources available to run missions abroad,” the ministry said in a note.

Norway’s income is reliant on revenue from oil and gas sales. Energy prices have halved in the last two years.

A Kazakh foreign ministry spokesman declined to comment.

With Norway’s departure there will now be 64 embassies in Astana. Norway’s exit is also a blow to Kazakhstan’s international image in the run-up to EXPO-2017 in Astana.

Just weeks ago, Kazakhstan secured a much-coveted non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council for 2017-18 and it proudly hosted a summit of the OSCE in 2010. Indra Over- land, research professor at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs told The Conway Bulletin that a mix of international crises and lack of interest has driven Norway away from Kazakhstan.

“The general Norwegian engagement in Central Asia has gone down, because of factors such as the European refugee crisis and the Ukraine crisis,” Mr Overland said.

“The lack of interesting projects available for the Norwegian oil company Statoil in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan also contributed [to the waning engagement].”

In 2013, Norway’s Statoil aban- doned the Abai offshore oil project after a lengthy negotiation with Kazakhstan’s state-owned Kazmunaigas.

Now the only city with a Norwegian embassy in the Central Asia/South Caucasus region is Baku. Statoil, the part-state owned Norwegian energy company, still operates projects in Azerbaijan.

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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)