Tag Archives: international relations

Markets: Trade turnover among Eurasian Economic Union members falls

OCT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Eurasian Economic Commission published the latest statistics on trade turnover among EEU countries. It made for interesting, if also distressing, reading.

Trade among Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan was down by a quarter in Jan.-Aug. 2015, compared to the same period last year.

By volume, Russia was the country that suffered the largest fall, amounting to over $4b. In terms of percentage, however, all other countries except for Kyrgyzstan fared worse — Kyrgyzstan acceded as a full member only in August, so its numbers could be misleading.

Curiously, Armenia increased trade turnover with non-EEU countries such as Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan by over 40%.

In the two periods analysed by the Commission, oil prices were significantly different. And this can be clearly seen in Kazakhstan’s statistics, which show a sharp fall in exports to Italy, China and Russia, its main trade partners by volume. In particular, the value of Kazakhstan’s exports were reduced by the double whammy of lower oil prices and the decrease in the value of the tenge after the government abandoned its peg to the US dollar.

It is undeniable that the rouble crisis and the fall in oil prices have affected the Eurasian region. And the EEU has been unabel to contain the spill-over effects on its members.

OCT. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) —

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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Armenia complains to NATO

OCT. 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia has complained to NATO about an incursion by the Turkish military into its airspace earlier this month. Turkey is a NATO member and has stepped-up activity in the east of the country to counter the IS extremist group. Armenia’s military said that on Oct. 6 and Oct. 7 a Turkish military transport helicopter strayed into its airspace.

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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Kazakh President begins foreign tour

OCT. 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s president Nursultan Nazarbayev will visit Qatar, Britain and France over the next two weeks, according to his official website akorda.kz. Qatar is one of Kazakhstan’s main partners in financial and infrastructure cooperation. Mr Nazarbayev has cultivated close ties with Britain and France.

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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Georgia’s President visits Israel

OCT. 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili flew to Israel for an official visit, further proof that relations between the two countries are improving after a shaky spell under former President Mikheil Saakashvili. Israel and Georgia last month opened a factory outside Tbilisi that will produce aviation parts.

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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

EX-Armenian PM Sargsyan heads Eurasian Union Commission

OCT. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Former Armenian PM Tigran Sargsyan will take over as chairman of the Eurasian Economic Commission on Feb. 1, an appointment that highlights Russian President Vladimir Putin’s influence over the group.

The Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) announced Mr Sargsyan’s appointment after a meeting in Astana. Mr Sargsyan succeeds Russian Viktor Khristenko.

According to media, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said of Mr Sargsyan’s appointment: “His candidacy is supported by the Russian President as they worked together some time ago.”

The Eurasian Economic Commission runs the EEU — which also includes Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan as its members — on a day-to-day basis, and Mr Sargsyan’s appointment should, at first sight, give Armenia more influence over the trade bloc.

The reality is different, though. The EEU is a Russian project and Mr Lukashenko’s words show just how influential Mr Putin is over the group. Without his support, Mr Sargsyan could not have been appointed as chairman.

Since April 2014, Mr Sargsyan has been the Armenian ambassador to the United States. He had been PM between 2008-14 but quit abruptly after his government’s reforms to the state pension programme proved unpopular.

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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Japanese PM begins Grand Tour of Central Asia with stopover in Turkmenistan

OCT. 23 2015, BISHKEK (The Conway Bulletin) — Japanese PM Shinzo Abe began a tour of the five Central Asian Stans designed to boost links with the region.

The trip started in Turkmenistan, where Mr Abe signed deals worth over $18b in the chemical and power sectors.

This was the first official visit by a Japanese PM to Turkmenistan, proof of the country’s growing status as a global energy exporter.

Stopovers in Dushanbe and Bishkek will also mark the first official visits to Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan for a Japanese leader.

Central Asia has been attracting high-profile interest from Asian leaders over the past few years. In 2013, China’s President Xi Jinping completed a similar Grand Tour of the region and this year Indian PM Narendra Modi also visited all five Stans.

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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Turkmenistan opens Tbilisi shop

OCT. 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Perhaps with potential gas supplies to Europe in mind, Turkmenistan opened a shop in Tbilisi selling various national produce. Turkmenistan is exploring the potential of supplying the EU with gas. Georgia hosts a gas pipeline running west from the Caspian Sea.

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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Georgia talks with Russia’s Gazprom

OCT. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia is in talks with Russia’s Gazprom to import gas, Georgian energy minister Kakha Kaladze told media, highlighting the improved relations between the two neighbours. Georgia currently exports nearly all its gas from Azerbaijan although it hosts a pipeline pumping gas from Russia to Armenia.

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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct.16 2015)

Kazakhstan and Russia agree to explore north Caspian for oil

OCT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian President Vladimir Putin flew to Astana where he signed a deal with Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev to jointly explore and develop the north Caspian Sea for hydrocarbon reserves.

The deal, signed before a meeting of leaders from the former Soviet Union, came roughly a week after Kazakhstan also hosted Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko. He signed deals with Mr Nazarbayev to increase cooperation in energy and aerospace. The timings of the two leaders’ visits to Astana highlights just how pressured the diplomatic space that Kazakhstan has to operate in is. It needs to keep relations with both Ukraine and Russia, who are locked in a proxy war in eastern Ukraine, sweet.

“We have big plans on joint oil production in the Caspian Sea,” Mr Putin said after signing the deal.

Kazakhstan and Russia also signed a deal for the Russian military to test missiles that would spread debris over a patch of Kazakhstan.

A week earlier, Mr Poroshenko had been in town talking up ties with Kazakhstan. This week, Kazakhstan’s ministry of defence said that it had signed a deal with Ukraine to boost cooperation in aviation.

Mr Nazarbayev has previously touted Kazakhstan as the ideal place for trying to thrash out a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. There has been no formal move to hand this role to Kazakhstan but but leaders do apparently appear relaxed about flying to Astana in quick succession.

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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct.16 2015)

Russia wants to patrol Tajik-Afghan border

OCT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s deputy minister of defence, General Yuri Borisov, said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was in talks with Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon to station soldiers on the Tajik-Afghan border to fight off any potential threat from the Taliban. Russia and Central Asian leaders have grown increasingly wary of the push north of the Taliban.

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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct.16 2015)