Tag Archives: international relations

Kazakh president seals deals in London

NOV. 3/4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev flew to Britain and France to sign a series of headline grabbing deals and pose for useful photo-ops.

In London, Mr Nazarbayev met with PM David Cameron and the Queen. The two sides signed 40 deals for £3b ($4.6b).

Importantly, Mr Nazarbayev’s eldest daughter Dariga, a deputy PM, accompanied him on the trip and was part of the official photo with the Queen. In Soviet and post-Soviet iconography, featuring in official photographs sends a strong signal and being photographed next to her father at an official engagement with the Queen will have boosted any presidential ambitions that Ms Nazarbayeva harbours.

In Paris, Mr Nazarbayev met with President Françoise Hollande and signed another set of deals worth over $5b, according to state media in Kazakhstan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

Kerry visits Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan

OCT.31/NOV. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan as part of a tour of Central Asia. In Bishkek, Mr Kerry wanted to persuade the government that despite quitting its airbase, the US was still interested in Kyrgyzstan. In Dushanbe, Mr Kerry told the government to ease up on its crackdown of opposition parties.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

Aliyev visits Georgia’s capital

NOV. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev flew to Tbilisi for a meeting with Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili where the they were expected to discuss a so called strategic partnership. Georgia and Azerbaijan have grown increasingly close because they share major oil and gas pipelines running from the Caspian Sea to Turkey and then on to Europe.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

OECD criticises Uzbek graft

NOV. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Corruption is still rife in Uzbekistan despite the introduction of the country’s first anti-corruption plan earlier this year and a so called anti-corruption coordination commission, the OECD said in a new report.

In its report, the OECD, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, said that Uzbekistan needs to criminalise corruption and promote public sector honesty and integrity.

Corruption and bribery are considered deeply embedded in Uzbekistan. The OECD, an intergovernmental organisation, report is evidence that little has changed despite some headline policies.

In effect, the OECD, said that Uzbekistan’s new laws were window dressing.

In its exhaustive 116 page report, the OECD said that Uzbekistan needed to focus on a handful of key policies if it was committed to beating corruption.

These involved conducting anti- corruption surveys regularly and publishing the results; improving the independence and integrity of the law enforcement agencies; developing e- government tools.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

Kazakh government progress NGO law

NOV. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh Senate passed a bill that will regulate financing for NGOs, a move criticised by the West as cutting back on civil liberties. The new bill is similar to a law passed in Russia and limits NGOs’ access to funding from overseas.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

NASA publishes mysterious earthworks in Kazakhstan

OCT. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – NASA published satellite pictures of earthworks found in north Kazakhstan which have baffled scientists. The photos of the Turgai region show massive stone circles. It’s unclear exactly what they represent, how old they are or who built them.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

Kerry stops over in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan on CAsia tour

NOV. 2/3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – On stopovers in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan during his whirlwind tour of Central Asia, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that he had “robustly” raised human rights issues with the countries’ leaders privately despite shying away from criticising his hosts in public.

Human rights groups had urged Mr Kerry to make a major statement on the state of human rights in both Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, countries they regard as among the most oppressive in the world.

Instead, Mr Kerry, in public at least, spoke about joint security concerns and about the need to keep democracy at the forefront of the region’s governance.

“In Central Asia and elsewhere people have a deep hunger for governments that are accountable and effective,” he was quoted as saying.

“We should have no doubt that progress in democratic governance does lead to gains in every other field.”

Perhaps Mr Kerry’s most important objective on his trip of the region was to reassure the leaders’ of the various countries that the United States was still interested in Central Asia despite quitting an air base outside Bishkek and appearing to cede influence to Russia and China.

Mr Kerry met Uzbek President Islam Karimov in Samarkand and later Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov in Ashgabat. Mr Kerry was the first US Secretary of State to visit Ashgabat since James Baker in 1992, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Media quoted Kerry at the end of his tour of Central Asia, summing up his most important aims.

“What we want to see is not a struggle between China and Russia and the United States in a zero-sum game,” he said. “What we want to see is a Central Asia that claims its place as an engine of growth at the heart of a modern and dynamic Asia.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

Smuggled petroleum flows into Kyrgyzstan

OCT. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The amount of smuggled petroleum products flowing into Kyrgyzstan from Kazakhstan has increased enormously since the country joined the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union in August, Melis Turgunbayev, director of state-owned energy company Kyrgyzneftegaz, said. He said the flood of smuggled goods had halved the trade in legally imported petroleum products.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

US blocks Korea- Uzbekistan fight jet deal

OCT. 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US government has blocked Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) , a South Korean firm, from selling a dozen T-50 Golden Eagle training fighter jets to Uzbekistan for $400m, the Korea Times newspaper reported.

Washington was reportedly concerned that technology used in T50s, which was co-developed by KAI and the US’ Lockheed Martin a decade ago, could be handed over to Russia.

“KAI has been in negotiations with the Uzbek government to export the supersonic trainers, but the US government is opposing the deal, citing possible technology leakage and diplomatic policy,” the Korea Times source said.

Uzbekistan is a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation but not the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, a Russia-dominated military bloc of former Soviet countries.

Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer told the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that the US’ worries were understandable.

“The decision has nothing to do with Uzbekistan. But Uzbekistan is a country in the Russian sphere of influence,” he was quoted as saying.

If confirmed, the ban on the sale of the T-50s to Tashkent could overshadow a planned visit by US Secretary of State John Kerry to Samarkand on Nov. 1.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Turkmenistan hosts Poroshenko in snub to Moscow

OCT. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a snub to Moscow, Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov hosted talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on sending gas to Ukraine.

At the meeting in Ashgabat the two leaders signed several intergovernmental agreements on industrial and agricultural cooperation. Energy, though, was top of the agenda.

No deal was signed but both leaders said progress had been made.

“We are ready to increase supplies to Ukraine of products from our domestic fuel and energy complex and begin implementing joint projects in this sphere,” Mr Berdymukhamedov said according to state media.

Both Ukraine and Turkmenistan have fallen out with the Kremlin.

The Ukrainian government is locked in a protracted civil war in the east of the country against rebel forces funded by Russia. Turkmenistan has fallen out with Russia’s Gazprom over gas contracts. Earlier this year, Mr Berdymukhamedov called Gazprom an “unreliable partner”.

Russia has begun to cut gas supplies to Ukraine, forcing it to look for alternative suppliers. It has also sharply lowered its purchase of Turkmen gas over the past few years.

The biggest problem for Turkmenistan is how to avoid using Russia’s extensive pipeline network to send gas to Ukraine. It is exploring sending gas and oil products across the Caspian Sea, potentially via a new pipeline but also by ship. From there, gas and oil products can be transported to the Black Sea coast and then shipped to Ukraine.

Media said Mr Berdymukhamedov was due in Kiev next year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)