JULY 12 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The long-running saga over extending the lease on the Russian military base in Tajikistan may have entered its end-game. Tajikistan demanded an annual lease of $250m from Russia for the base, one of its biggest overseas outposts, media reported. Under the current contract Russia pays with military assistance.
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(News report from Issue No. 096, published on July 13 2012)
JUNE 19 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Eleven Kazakh army conscripts deserted their outpost on the border with China, allegedly because of bullying, media reported. The conscripts were found the next day but this was the second recent incident concerning the Kazakh military on the Chinese border. In May, 14 soldiers were murdered in their outpost.
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(News report from Issue No. 093, published on June 22 2012)
JUNE 15 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kommersant, a respected Russian business newspaper, quoted sources close to governments in Central Asia describing negotiations with the US over potentially abandoning some military equipment during its withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014.
The sources said that, as a money-saving plan, senior US generals had discussed leaving trucks, medical and fire-fighting equipment and even armoured vehicles in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
NATO’s exit from Afghanistan is already sensitive and complex. US relations with Pakistan have broken down leaving Central Asia as the only alternative.
This means making deal with government whose human rights record falls, to put it mildly, below Western standards. Russia and China also take a close interest in Central Asia, making NATO’s potential withdrawal through the region even more sensitive.
But NATO has persevered and seemingly managed to carve itself out the route it needs.
Leaving kit in Central Asia though, even if it’s of the non-lethal variety, has not publicly been part of the plan. This has upset the Russians just when NATO needs their support.
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(News report from Issue No. 093, published on June 22 2012)
JUNE 15 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev told the deputy commander of China’s army, Ma Xiaotian, that he wanted to deepen relations between the two countries’ militaries, media reported. China has already built up strong links with the armies in Central Asia through the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
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(News report from Issue No. 093, published on June 22 2012)
JUNE 4 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – NATO’s general-secretary, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, announced that transit deals had been struck with Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan to allow the Western military alliance to withdraw kit from Afghanistan across their territories. The deals cement the strategic and political importance of Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 091, published on June 8 2012)
JUNE 6 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Coinciding with a visit by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the South Caucasus, fighting flared between Azerbaijani forces and Armenian- backed rebels around the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Media reported that nine soldiers from both sides had been killed in shootouts over the past few days.
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(News report from Issue No. 091, published on June 8 2012)
MAY 31 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – One of China’s top military officers, General Chen Bingde, visited Taskhent and called for greater bilateral cooperation between Uzbekistan and China, media reported. General Chen said Central Asia had an important part to play in the world. He holds a position equivalent to the US’ Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
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(News report from Issue No. 090, published on June 1 2012)
MAY 4 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s Supreme Court banned a Muslim extremist group called Jamaat Ansarullah, media reported. Jamaat Ansarullah claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack in Khujand, north Tajikistan, in 2010 that killed 3 policemen. It has also been linked to al Qaeda.
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(News report from Issue No. 087, published on May 11 2012)
APRIL 27 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia said that Azerbaijani forces shot dead three of its soldiers in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan vowed revenge, triggering one of the most serious stand-offs over Nagorno- Karabakh this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 086, published on May 4 2012)
MAY 1 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh media rather cryptically reported that Kazakhstan intends to build 2,500km of “engineering facilities” along its borders with Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. These facilities are likely to be border defences and are linked both to combating drug and human trafficking as well as Kazakhstan’s historical mistrust of its southern neighbours.
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(News report from Issue No. 086, published on May 4 2012)