NOV. 21 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — An Uzbek delegation led by foreign minister Abulaziz Kamilov visited Britain for talks on further cooperation and the situation in Afghanistan. Despite concerns over its human rights record, NATO is cooperating with Uzbekistan to withdraw its military equipment from neighbouring Afghanistan next year.
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(News report from Issue No. 162, published on Nov. 27 2013)
NOV. 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Officials from NATO, the US-led Western military alliance, will open a training centre in Baku when they visit the Azerbaijani capital on Nov. 18, media reported. Azerbaijan has deployed a small detachment of soldiers to support NATO’s campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Moving closer to NATO is a snub to Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)
SEPT. 24 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a Russia-led military group, will arm Tajik forces along its border with Afghanistan, Russian President Vladimir Putin said after a meeting in Sochi, south Russia. The CSTO is worried about the spread of the Taliban from Afghanistan after NATO leaves in 2014.
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(News report from Issue No. 153, published on Sept. 25 2013)
JUNE 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Irakli Alasania, Georgia’ defence minister, said the two military bases in Afghanistan where suicide bombers have killed 10 Georgian soldiers in the past month would close. He said the closures would improve security but none of the 1,500 Georgian soldiers would be withdrawn.
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(News report from Issue No. 139, published on June 17 2013)
JUNE 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Nurtai Abykayev, the 76-year-old head of Kazakhstan’s intelligence agencies, is experienced, calculating and a close confident of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
He would have weighed up the implications of telling a group of journalists on the sidelines of a meeting in Kazan, Russia, of intelligence chiefs from across the former Soviet Union that there were an estimated 100 Kazakhs training in militant camps in southern Afghanistan.
What he wanted to gain by releasing this figure is still unclear. Does he consider this a small or large number? Certainly global attention on defeating radical Islam has re-focused on Central Asia since a pair of ethnic Chechen brothers with links to Kyrgyzstan bombed the Boston marathon in April.
Since 2011 Kazakhstan has been trying to quell its own Islamic militant insurgency. It has blamed a series of bomb attacks on radical Islamists and locked up several dozen young men with apparent links to these militant groups.
Mr Abykayev may also have been trying to warn of the perils that Central Asia faces from 2014 when NATO forces withdraw from Afghanistan and the Taliban are able to roam north.
Russia has been constantly voicing concern about the threat from militants once the NATO soldiers leave. Mr Abykayev may be adding Kazakhstan’s voice to these concerns.
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(News report from Issue No. 138, published on June 10 2013)
JUNE 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has made joining NATO, the US-led military alliance, one of the cornerstones of his foreign policy.
Mr Saakashvili has vigorously supported NATO’s war in Afghanistan. There was no internal threat to Georgia from Islamic radicals trained by the Taliban, the initial reason for Western armies to march into Afghanistan. Mr Saakashvili’s motive was purely geo-political.
Georgia has 1,600 soldiers in Afghanistan, the highest number of all non-NATO members, stationed mainly in Helmand province, one of the more restless areas. Considering the commitment, Georgian casualties had been relatively light. That, though, has changed.
On June 6, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Georgian military base, killing seven soldiers. This was the largest single loss of life to NATO forces this year. Last month three Georgian soldiers died in a similar attack. Since 2010, 27 Georgian soldiers have died in Afghanistan, according to the website icasualties.org.
The official reaction was one of defiance and Georgia’s defence minister Irakli Alasania broke off a trip to Brussels to visit soldiers in Afghanistan. On the streets of Tbilisi support for the war is still strong too but this may be beginning to change.
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(News report from Issue No. 138, published on June 10 2013)
MAY 28 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Over the past couple of years, NATO has slowly been building relations with Uzbekistan. The Western military alliance needs Uzbekistan’s help to pull kit and equipment out of neighbouring Afghanistan.
Deals have been made ahead of the military pull-out, scheduled for 2013 and 2014, and promises of friendships pledged.
Now NATO plans to open an office in Tashkent, media reported. NATO said the move was planned as part of a rotational policy and the office was simply moving from Astana to Tashkent. Maybe, but the timing is also good for NATO. They have to coordinate pulling out hundreds of military vehicles across Uzbekistan to Russia over the next couple of years. They also have to work out what kit to leave behind in Uzbekistan.
Dealing with Uzbekistan is tricky. It was only a few years ago, when the West didnít need its support for their war in Afghanistan, that Uzbekistan was considered a pariah state with a distasteful human rights record.
Eurasianet quoted a NATO spokesperson as saying that the office in Tashkent would open up in either June or July and that it would have diplomatic status.
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(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)
MAY 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Britain will pay Kazakhstan between $300,000 and $400,000 a year to shift military equipment across its territory, media quoted Kazakh deputy foreign minister Aleksei Volkov as saying. NATO members have been agreeing deals with Central Asian states to help pull military equipment out of Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)
MAY 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Three Georgian soldiers died in Afghanistan when a suicide bomber attacked their base in Helmand province in the south of the country, media reported. Pro-West Georgia has been a stalwart supporter of NATO’s war in Afghanistan. Media reported that 22 Georgian soldiers have now died in Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)
APRIL 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon reiterated his concern that NATO’s withdrawal from Afghanistan will destabilise Tajikistan and Central Asia, Reuters reported from a conference in Brussels. NATO plans to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. Tajikistan shares a 1,200km porous border with Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 131, published on April 12 2013)