Tag Archives: international relations

Azerbaijan’s president travels to Saudi Arabia

APRIL 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev visited Saudi Arabia only a few days after members of the United Arab Emirates’ royal family had travelled to Baku for talks.

Some analysts have said that Mr Aliyev is looking to boost his alliances with Arab states as a potential bulwark against improving US-Iran ties.

“Saudi Arabia will extend its investment in Azerbaijan. We are both Muslim countries and Azerbaijan has good relations with Saudi,” Vahid Ahmadov, an independent MP, told the Bulletin.

In many ways it suits Azerbaijan to have its neighbour, Iran, ostracised and demonised by the international community. The thinking goes that if Iran is considered a rogue state, the US and Israel need Azerbaijan more. This month, at talks in Switzerland, the US moved to relax sanctions imposed on Iran because of concerns about its nuclear programme.

The opposition ReAl movement said that Mr Aliyev had been trying to woo Arab states because he needed more cash for various pipeline projects.

“Azerbaijan will need huge money for the TAP and TANAP projects. Oil revenues are falling and the government needs to find loans,” media reports quoted Azer Gasimli, an opposition activist, as saying.

“The IMF and World Bank set disturbing standards which require economic reforms for Aliyev. For him it is better to find loans from Arab countries.”

The EU and Western companies are investing in Azerbaijani energy and the infrastructure needed to transport it to markets. Azerbaijan, though, needs cash now.
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(News report from Issue No. 226, published on April 8 2015)

Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan break ranks on Russia sanctions

APRIL 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan have reportedly broken ranks with other former Soviet states and declined to sign a memo calling for sanctions on Russia to be dropped.

At a meeting of foreign ministers in Bishkek most members of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) agreed to back the petition which was to be sent to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) (April 3).

But Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan — along with Ukraine and Moldova — declined to sign the document, the local language service of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.

All three of the Central Asian and South Caucasus countries have form.

Azerbaijan’s cause is probably a sovereignty issue. It doesn’t want to set a precedent that would allow the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh to drift further from its control.

Uzbekistan’s reasons are more deep-rooted and linked to its traditional unilateral stance on issues concerning Russia.

And Turkmenistan could be just aiming to irritate Russia.

It appears that Ashgabat is locked in a worsening row with Russia over gas supplies and the devaluation of the rouble. Earlier this year, Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymkuhamedov blamed Russia for Central Asia’s economic troubles.

Regardless, the failure to secure the full backing of CSTO members in Bishkek is a — largely overlooked — diplomatic miss for Russia.

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(News report from Issue No. 226, published on April 8 2015)

Azerbaijan says to relax visa regimes

APRIL 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan is planning to relax its visa regime for the inaugural European Games in Baku on June 12, the US Chamber of Commerce in Azerbaijan said. Ten days ahead of the Games, people with tickets will be able to apply for a visa on arrival at Baku airport.
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(News report from Issue No. 226, published on April 8 2015)

India pushes TAPI project with Turkmenistan

APRIL 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – India’s external affairs minister, Sushma Swaraj, flew to Ashgabat to meet Turkmen officials to, possibly, push the TAPI pipeline project along. TAPI aims to carry Turkmen gas to India via Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 226, published on April 8 2015)

US/UK military exercise begins in Kazakhstan

APRIL 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – British and US soldiers have flown to Kazakhstan to take part in the Steppe Eagle annual military exercise. The exercise is routine but it is still a useful reminder that although Kazakhstan is close to Russia, it has also cultivated close ties with NATO forces.
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(News report from Issue No. 226, published on April 8 2015)

Russia gives Tajikistan military aid

APRIL 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan is poised to receive $1.2b in military equipment and weapons from Russia to fight against the radical Islamic group IS.

An unnamed source in the Russian Defence Ministry told Russian newspaper Kommersant the aid will be spread across the next few years. What is clear is that the aid pulls Tajikistan further into the Kremlin’s orbit and strengthen its security driven regional focus.

It also intensifies the rhetoric. Previously Russia and Tajikistan had discussed the threat posed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. That has now morphed into the threat from IS. IS had previously only been associated with recruiting in Central Asia.

Some analysts are sceptical and have said that Russia and various Central Asia countries are using IS and the Taliban as a scare-mongering tactic.

Earlier this month, President Emomali Rakhmon criticised women for wearing “foreign, non traditional clothes,” while the state television channel insinuated that demand for prostitutes wearing black hijabs was increasing. This resonated as a subtle comparison between women wearing traditional Islamic head scarves and prostitutes wearing black hijabs (April 1).

Tajikistan has taken a strong stance against radical Islam. This means more control over society, less freedom of expression, and more options for arbitrary rule of law.
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(News report from Issue No. 226, published on April 8 2015)

Uzbekistan wants to double rent on German base

APRIL 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Only a few months after agreeing a 35m euro/year deal to extend the lease on a German military base in south Uzbekistan, the Uzbek government wants to double the rent, the eurasianet.org website reported quoting German media. The German military base is now the only Western base in Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 226, published on April 8 2015)

Argentina removes story on Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijani complaint

APRIL 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Argentinean news agency Telam removed from its website an article on the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijani officials complained it was biased, media reported. Azerbaijan is very sensitive over how its dispute with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh is portrayed.
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(News report from Issue No. 226, published on April 8 2015)

US State Dept criticises its embassy in Dushanbe

APRIL 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US State Department has criticised its embassy in Tajikistan for filing sanitised reports on civil violence in the south of the country in 2012 which ended with Tajik US-trained Special Forces shooting dead 20 civilians, the eurasianet.org website reported. The US State Department said its confidence in the embassy had been undermined.
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(News report from Issue No. 226, published on April 8 2015)

Armenia takes part in NATO exercise

APRIL 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Thirty-six Armenian soldiers flew to Germany for a NATO military exercise, Armenian media reported. Armenia is the only former Soviet state to send a contingent to the exercise. Its participation shows that despite being a close ally of Russia, Armenia is still cooperating with the West.
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(News report from Issue No. 226, published on April 8 2015)