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)
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)
OCT. 3 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Ahead of another round of talks between Georgia and Russia over Russian hopes to join the WTO, media quoted Georgian deputy foreign minister David Dzhaglania as saying that Moscow should sign a non-aggression pact. Already a member of the WTO, Georgia effectively holds a veto over Russian entry.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 59, published on Oct. 4 2011)
SEPT. 29 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Overriding concerns about its human rights record, US President Barack Obama asked Uzbek President Islam Karimov to boost the capacity of a NATO supply line running through Uzbekistan to Afghanistan, media reported. The US is shifting supplies to the Northern Distribution Network, from Pakistan where its relationship with the government has soured.
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(News report from Issue No. 59, published on Oct. 4 2011)
SEPT. 21 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia staged its biggest military parade to mark the 20th anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union. The show of strength matched Azerbaijan which held a similar parade in June. Armenia and Azerbaijan are still officially at war over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
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(News report from Issue No. 58, published on Sept. 27 2011)
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)
SEPT. 20 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Polynesian island state of Tuvalu became the fifth nation to recognise Abkhazia’s independence on Sept. 18, Abkhazia said. Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela and the Pacific nation of Nauru have already recognised both Abkhazia and South Ossetia’s independence. Russia-backed Abkhazia and South Ossetia declared independence from Georgia in 2008.
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(News report from Issue No. 58, published on Sept. 27 2011)
SEPT. 16 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A group of militant Islamists released a video threatening to attack government forces and non-believers in Tajikistan, local media reported. Central Asia’s leaders are worried about Islamic fighters moving northwards from Afghanistan. Tajikistan is considered a vital buffer against the spread of violence.
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(News report from Issue No. 57, published on Sept. 19 2011)
SEPT. 13 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia-backed forces in the breakaway Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh said they shot down an Azerbaijani spy drone, Armenian media reported. The claims immediately increased tension in the region where a shaky ceasefire has held since the early 1990s. Azerbaijan denied any links to the spy drone.
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(News report from Issue No. 57, published on Sept. 19 2011)
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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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 57, published on Sept. 19 2011)