Tag Archives: Tajikistan

Iran to develop trade with Tajikistan

JUNE 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iran plans to export more refined gas products to Tajikistan and Armenia, Iranian media quoted a senior official at the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company as saying.

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(News report from Issue No. 237, published on June 25 2015)

Tajik electricity exports rise

JUNE 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan increased exports of electricity to Afghanistan by a third in May compared to the same month in 2014, media reported quoting official statistics. This is important because international backers view Tajiksitan’s hydro-generated electricity as a decent export.

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(News report from Issue No. 237, published on June 25 2015)

Taliban releases Tajik soldiers

JUNE 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Taliban released four Tajik soldiers it had captured in December in a deal brokered by Qatar.

Tajikistan’s National Security Committee confirmed the release of the soldiers but neither it nor the Qatari mediation team gave any details on what sort of deal had been struck.

According to Taliban sources, quoted by various media, the release of the border guards was achieved because of “good neighbour relations”.

The Taliban, however, remain a chief national security problem for Tajikistan. General Rajabali Rakhmonali told a press briefing that 1,500 Islamic militants were massing near the border of Afghanistan. Tajikistan has warned previously of a Taliban attack.

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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)

Russia testing drone in Tajikistan

JUNE 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s military has been testing using drones at night in Tajikistan’s Pamir mountains, Russian media reported quoting a military press release. Russia is worried about the threat from the Taliban to Central Asia.

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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)

Tajik opposition leader moves into exile

JUNE 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Muhiddin Kabiri, leader of the Islamic Renaissance Party, is moving into self-imposed exile over fears that he will be targeted and imprisoned in a government clampdown in Tajikistan, he told Eurasinet.org in an interview. The Islamic Renaissance Party is Tajikistan’s main opposition party but has been increasingly marginalised.

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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)

Turkmenistan extends military draft

JUNE 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan has extended its military draft, websites reported, perhaps to bolster units along the increasingly tense border with Afghanistan.

“According to incoming reports, the majority of young men, who have been recently drafted in Lebap and Balkan velayats, will be sent to the military units based in Kushka, i.e. near the Turkmen-Afghan border,” the website reported.

Senior military officials have previously said that they need to boost the number of soldiers in the army to counter perceived threat from the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Last year reports from the border said that Turkmen army units clashed with Taliban units in a number of skirmishes. This year, though, reports from the border of military activity have been much reduced.

Even so, the Chronicles of Turkmenistan website reported that the Turkmen military has extended the draft for con- scripts to July 25 from the end of June.

The countries that border Afghanistan — Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan — have been warning that the Taliban is preparing to move to Central Asia.

Russia has supported this assessment and sent various military advisers to the region as well as offering to boost its military presence along the border.

But many Western analysts have scorned this viewpoint and said instead that the narrative has been designed to bolster strict military and authoritarian rule in the region.

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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)

Tajikistan will receive EU funding

JUNE 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At the fourth EU-Tajikistan Cooperation Committee in Brussels, the European delegation confirmed it had earmarked 251m euro for Tajikistan over the next five years to improve rural areas. The EU said the aid was more necessary now because of the drop in remittances.

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(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)

CSTO force to be sent to Tajikistan

JUNE 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia would be prepared to send a rapid reaction force to defend Tajikistan’s southern border from Taliban incursions, Russian media quoted General Nikolai Bordyuzha as saying. General Bordyuzha is head of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), an FSU intergovernmental military group.

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(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)

Tajikistan lifts Facebook ban

JUNE 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Tajikistan lifted a ban on Facebook and YouTube imposed after a police chief defected to the radical group IS in Syria last month, the AFP news agency reported.

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(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)

Pakistani PM talks CASA in Tajikistan

JUNE 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif flew to Dushanbe for talks with Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon, his first visit to Tajikistan since the neighbours agreed an electricity supply deal earlier this year.

At this meeting the two leaders agreed to speed up building the infrastructure needed for Tajikistan to send electricity generated from its hydropower stations to Pakistan under the CASA-1000 deal.

Importantly they agreed to improve communication and links.

This is important. International organisations as well as Western states have supported the CASA-1000 deal. They want electricity sent to Pakistan improved as well as cash flowing into Tajikistan’s economy.

They also want to encourage deeper relations between countries, including between Tajikistan and Pakistan.