JULY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s oil exports fell by 2.5% in the first half of 2015 because of a drop in production, Reuters reported quoting a source in the state statistics committee. Oil and gas exports make up 75% of government revenue.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 14/15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Two top managers resigned from Astana EXPO-2017, the company charged with delivering President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s extravaganza. Both ex-managing director Saltanat Rakhimbekova and ex-deputy chairman Vera Kobalia left their positions voluntarily. An embezzlement case has dented progress on EXPO-2017.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – An estimated 145 Kazakh and Chinese miners brawled in a canteen at a mine in eastern Kazakhstan on July 8, media reported. The brawl, which reportedly hospitalised 31 men, highlights the underlying ethnic tension at many Kazakhstan-China joint ventures.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – India’s government ratified an agricultural deal with Armenia which should boost trade between the two countries, media reported. India is looking to boost relations with Central Asia and the South Caucasus.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia signed a tax agreement with the US that means US citizens living in Georgia will be liable to pay US income tax. After signing the agreement Georgian finance minister Nodar Khaduri said the deal would give Georgian banks more access to the US market.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – London-listed Anglo Asian Mining increased gold production by a third in the first half of the year. Anglo Asian Mining produces gold at Azerbaijani mines in which the government also owns a stake. If Anglo Asian has increased its gold production, the government will also have increased its revenue.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
DUSHANBE, JULY 12/13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Indian PM Narendra Modi’s grand tour of Central Asia ended with a visit to Tajikistan, once again sparking the decade long rumour that India would lease the Ayni airbase near Dushanbe.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website reported that Mr Modi and Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon visited the Ayni military base 15km outside Dushanbe as well as a 50-bed military field hospital India helped set up last year, ramping up speculation an agreement was about to be signed.
Instead, the two leaders signed far less eye-catching deals on culture and education.
India has been looking to lease an airbase in Central Asia for years.
It helped renovate the air base at Ayni in 2003 but appears to have been blocked from renting the base, possibly by Russia or China, Tajikistan’s close allies.
Earlier on the trip in Russia, Mr Modi had signed a deal for India to join the China and Russia led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) military/economic group focused on Central Asia.
India wants to start competing with China for influence over Central Asia and also for access to its various energy and metal deposits.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – TBILISI — Georgia accused Russia of grabbing a significant slice of its territory around the breakaway region of South Ossetia, including part of an oil pipeline owned by BP.
Signposts appeared overnight near an important motorway which crosses Georgia declaring the area to be under the control of South Ossetian forces. Armed men also started to patrol the area.
“(The) placing of these banners can be assessed as a provocation and completely unjustified move,” Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili was quoted by Georgian media as saying.
The EU, a consistent supporter of Georgia, agreed with Mr Garibashvili and released a statement on July 16 calling for the South Ossetian banners to be withdrawn.
Georgia and Russia fought a brief war in 2008 over South Ossetia which had declared de facto independence after the breakup of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. After the 2008 war, Russia and a handful of other states recognised this independence.
Tension around the border zone, rugged hilly countryside dotted with farms and woods, has ebbed and flowed since then. This apparent land grab is one of the most serious, though.
It also highlights the risk of Georgia being an increasingly important part of the transit route for goods travelling between Asia and Europe.
Mr Garibashvili said that a 1.6km section of BP-operated Baku-Supsa oil pipeline now fell under rebel control.
“The pipeline is of strategic importance not only for us, but also for several other countries,” he said.
The 850km-long pipeline pumps 100,000 barrels of oil a day from fields in the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea where it is then shipped on to consumers in Europe.
Media quoted a BP spokesperson as saying that oil supplies would continue unaffected.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US State Department gave a human rights award to Azimzhan Askarov, an ethnic Uzbek sent to prison in 2010 for inciting ethnic fighting earlier that year. At the time, in 2010, Askarov’s supporters said the charges had been fabricated. The Kyrgyz foreign ministry lodged a complaint to the US State department.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
YEREVAN, JULY 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia welcomed the announcement from Vienna, perhaps with even more gusto than its neighbours, that Western powers had agreed a deal with Iran that should see sanctions on it lifted.
As a landlocked country surrounded mainly by enemies, Armenia has viewed its southern neighbour as a necessary trade partner over the past few years. A sanction-free Iran, it is hoped in Yerevan, will also give Armenia a boost.
“Naturally, if we consider Armenia and Iran as not only neighbours with friendly relations but also having partnership relations, then the lifting of sanctions against Iran and growing regional role of Iran will benefit us in terms of Iran’s developing economic relations,” said Armenian orientalist Vardan Voskanyan on Shant TV.
Both countries have been forced to improve bilateral relations — both diplomatic and trade — over the past few years. Iran has experienced years in the international wilderness. Armenia’s neighbours include Turkey and Azerbaijan, its enemies.
Armenia supplies electricity to Iran in return for gas and there is a programme to build a joint hydro-electricity generating plant along the border on the Arax River.
Various other projects are planned, including a railway.
The Zhamanak newspaper wrote that Armenia can now become a transit country for Iranian goods heading to Europe.
“We just have to welcome the achievement of the agreement, hoping that the positive effects of this situation will impact us as soon as possible,” it said.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
