Tag Archives: international relations

Kerry to visit Georgia

JUNE 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a potential boost to Georgia’s aspirations to join NATO, US Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Tbilisi on July 6, the US government said. The following dayMr Kerry will then travel on to Kiev. Joining NATO is a major component of Georgia’s foreign policy. Georgia has supported NATO’s military operations in Afghanistan and the US in Iraq over the past 15 years.

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(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Russia released Georgian spy

JUNE 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — In another sign of improving relations between Russia and Georgia, Russia released Zurab Abashidze, a Georgian national who had been imprisoned for spying. Russia said that it had now released seven people it imprisoned for spying between 2008 and 2011. Relations between Georgia and Russia improved when the Georgian Dream coalition took power from Mikheil Saakashvili’s National United Movement party in 2012.

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(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Pope pays visit to Armenia

JUNE 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a three day trip to Armenia, Pope Francis called for closer links between the Vatican and the Armenian Orthodox Church and also described the killings of over 1m Armenians at the end of the First World War by Ottoman Turks as a genocide. The Pope has been one of the most outspoken proponents of Armenia’s insistence that the killings 100 years ago constitute a genocide. Turkey furiously denies the allegations and has said that the deaths were part of the chaos of WWl.

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(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

China agrees to loan Uzbekistan

JUNE 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — China has agreed to loan Uzbekistan $2.6b to implement various joint projects, Uzbek President Islam Karimov said. The deal highlights Chinese strategy in Central Asia where it is prepared to hand out cheap loans in exchange for infrastructure projects developed by Chinese companies. The loans also give it political influence.

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(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Pakistan and India signed pledges to join SCO in Uzbekistan

JUNE 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Pakistan and India signed pledges to join the Russia and China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in 2017 at the group’s annual summit meeting, held this year in Tashkent. This would be the first time since its inception in 15 years ago that the SCO has expanded beyond its core focusof Central Asia. China, in particular, has used the SCO to expand its influence across Central Asia.

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(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Editorial: The UN Security Council

JULY 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh government scored a major diplomatic victory when it was elected to a non-permanent seat of the UN Security Council for 2017-18.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev said it was a “historic achievement”, one that will promote Kazakhstan as the face of Central Asia in the international arena.

It’s also a major achievement for the Kazakh diplomatic corps who have lobbied hard for a seat at the UN Security Council ever since Mr Nazarbayev made it a priority a couple of years ago.

Kazakhstan beat Thailand conclusively in the final vote and will now be the first country from Central Asia to hold a seat at the UN Security Council on behalf of the Arab-Asia bloc.

Importantly for Mr Nazarbayev, the position fits nicely with the narrative he has tried to build of Kazakhstan as a global power. In 2010, Kazakhstan hosted a summit of the OSCE, Europe’s democracy and security watchdog, and next year it hosts EXPO-2017.

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(Editorial from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Editorial: The SCO

JULY 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) will expand next year to include Pakistan and India. Since its inception in Shanghai in 2001, the SCO has been led by China and Russia. It was formed to extend their influence over their shared near-abroad — Central Asia. SCO members include all the Central Asian states other than Turkmenistan.

Western analysts have previously referred to it as Russia and China’s version of NATO, mainly because of the very visible war games that it stages each year. But this is only one component of the SCO. More important, but less visible are the various social and economic projects conducted through the SCO apparatus. These have mainly involved China. Indeed it has given China a major footprint in the region and helped to extend its influence.

By opening up the SCO to Pakistan and India, the SCO is potentially changing its remit from a regional, Central Asia focused group to a far wider organisation that takes in the two most populous countries in the world. It may become less useful as an organisation to develop Central Asia and more useful as group for larger countries to discuss their problems.

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(Editorial from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Georgia is the best route, says Iran

JUNE 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Iran’s oil refining and distribution company said that it views Georgia as the best route to send its various petroleum products to Europe. Iran and Georgia have developed increasingly close economic and business relations over the past few years and there is now relatively high number of Iranian businesses and nationals living in Tbilisi. They had viewed Georgia as a potential route around sanctions.

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(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Kazakhstan wins UN Security Council seat

ALMATY, JUNE 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The UN General Assembly elected Kazakhstan to hold a non- permanent seat at the UN Security Council, with 138 votes in favour out of 193, a major PR coup for President Nursultan Nazarbayev who coveted the position and ordered a sustained campaign to win it.

And Mr Nazarbayev quickly hailed the news as a success.

“Kazakhstan’s election as a non- permanent member of the UN Security Council is a historic achievement. This is not only our country’s success but that of the entire sub-region of Central Asia,” he said.

Kazakhstan will hold the seat at the 15-member Security Council for two years, from Jan. 1 2017. It is the first country in Central Asia to hold the position. Azerbaijan held anon- permanent seat at the UN Security Council in 2012/13.

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(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Pope Francis prepares to visit Armenia

JUNE 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Pope Francis is set to visit Armenia on June 24, a trip that will further strain relations with Azerbaijan and Turkey.

The Vatican has already had to modify the trip, originally planned to include both Armenia and Azerbaijan, after the most serious violence in the disputed of Nagorno-Karabakh region for 20 years broke out in April. The Pope will now only visit Armenia, where he will deliver a liturgy on June 25.

Last year, Pope Francis labelled the mass killings of Armenians in 1915 by Ottoman Turks as a genocide, a diplomatic victory for Armenian lobby groups. The declaration damaged Turkish-Vatican relations. Turkey has denied the genocide.

In the past few years, the Roman Catholic Church has tried to boost ties with Armenian Apostolic Christians.

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(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)