Tag Archives: Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan bids for a UN Security Council seat

OCT. 18 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan is competing with Pakistan for a non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council. The vote for who wins the seat for 2012-13 will take place on Oct. 21 2011 and it is expected to be close. If Kyrgyzstan — backed by the US, according to some commentators — does win, it will be the first ex-Soviet Central Asian nation on the UN Security Council.

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(News report from Issue No. 61, published on Oct. 18 2011)

Security concerns grow in Kyrgyzstan

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OCT. 10 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz security services arrested 11 people during a nationwide anti-terrorist operation just three weeks before a presidential election. The head of the state’s national security committee, Keneshbek Dushebayev, later said militant Islamists linked to al Qaeda planned to attack during the election.

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(News report from Issue No. 60, published on Oct. 11 2011)

Kyrgyz-Russian company to fuel Manas

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SEPT. 27 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A joint venture between a Kyrgyz company and Russia’s Gazprom will begin deliveries of jet fuel in November to the US airbase at Manas outside Bishkek, the US ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, Pamela Spratlen, told media. The Kyrgyz-Russian JV will supply 50% of the fuel to Manas, a vital supply hub for NATO forces in Afghanistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 59, published on Oct. 4 2011)

Putin’s Eurasian Union shapes up

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OCT. 4 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – So it’s finally official. The Kremlin sees the Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan Customs Union as a tool for further integration.

In an article for the newspaper Izvestiya on Oct. 4, Russian PM Vladimir Putin wrote of his vision for a Eurasian Union based around Moscow’s leadership emerging from the customs union. The timing of this article underlined its importance. This was Mr Putin’s first major policy statement since Sept. 24, 2011 when he said he would return as Russian president.

For Central Asia, but not yet for the South Caucasus, the customs union is already important. Kazakhstan is an enthusiastic member, Kyrgyzstan has officially applied to join and Tajikistan is thinking about it.

Russia uses the customs union as a bulwark against the growing influence of China and the West in Central Asia, a region it considers to be its natural sphere of influence.

Although Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan may be able to afford to resist, for Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan it has become politically and economically important to join the customs union.

Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev can also claim to have been the first to float the idea of a Eurasian Union. He mentioned the concept during a speech at a Moscow university in 1994.

Now, 17 years later, this Eurasian Union is gaining momentum.

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(News report from Issue No. 59, published on Oct. 4 2011)

Kazakhstan supplies cheap gas to Kyrgyzstan

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SEPT. 28 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan will buy gas from Kazakhstan at half the price it had been paying Uzbekistan, media quoted Kyrgyz acting deputy PM Omurbek Babanov as saying. In return, Kyrgyzstan has agreed to increase electricity supplies to southern Kazakhstan. There has been constant friction between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan over gas and water supplies.

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(News report from Issue No. 59, published on Oct. 4 2011)

Kyrgyzstan applies to join the Customs Union

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SEPT. 23 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan has applied to join the Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan customs union, Bloomberg quoted Russian first deputy PM Igor Shuvalov as saying. Kyrgyzstan has hinted throughout the year it wants to join the union which some analysts say is a Russian ploy to pull in its former Soviet neighbours.

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(News report from Issue No. 58, published on Sept. 27 2011)

US engagement in Central Asia marks the return of the Silk Road

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SEPT. 27 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Silk Road is back in vogue, at least at the UN’s General Assembly last week.

On the sidelines of the meeting, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and foreign ministers from Europe, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia were busy plotting a revival of the ancient trading route.

Media reports said the US sees the Silk Road as a way of boosting economic activity in Afghanistan from 2014 when NATO forces pull out of the country.

But if the Silk Road, which has always been a concept rather than a single physical route, is going to return to its glory days it requires a stable, prosperous and open Central Asia through which trade can flow.

Kazakhstan, with its anticipated economic growth of around 7% a year and increasingly open markets, is perhaps the only Central Asian state which fits that description. Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are relatively closed and instability plagues Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

Of course, a modern day trading system already straddles Central Asia. Lorries carry goods from China to Russia and on to Europe and pipelines pump oil from the Caspian to Western markets. It may not be the Silk Road with Afghanistan at its core that the US envisages, but it is a start.

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(News report from Issue No. 058, published on Sept. 27 2011)

Election campaigning starts in Kyrgyzstan

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SEPT. 25 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Campaigning started in Kyrgyzstan for a presidential election on Oct. 30. The central election commission whittled down 83 potential candidates to 20 but analysts don’t expect a winner in the first round and anticipate a run-off between PM Almazbek Atambayev, from the north, and a more nationalist candidate from the south.

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(News report from Issue No. 58, published on Sept. 27 2011)

Central Asia prepares war games with Arab Spring in mind

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SEPT. 19 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Russia-lead security organisation involving most Central Asia states and Armenia started a week of military manoeuvres. Russia’s most senior general, Nikolai Makarov, told the Vedemosti newspaper that stopping any potential Arab Spring-style uprising was one of the main aims of the manoeuvres by the Collective Security Treaty Organisation.

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(News report from Issue No. 57, published on Sept. 19 2011)

India offers military aid to Kyrgyzstan

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SEPT. 9 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a trip to Delhi by Kyrgyz defence minister Major-General Abidilla Kudaberdiev, Indian defence minister A.K. Antony offered training and technical aid to Kyrgyzstan’s military, local media reported. India wants to boost its presence in Central Asia and earlier this year also offered military assistance.

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(News report from Issue No. 56, published on Sept. 12 2011)