JAN. 31 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili travelled to Washington to meet US President Barack Obama at the White House. No major agreements were concluded but the visit was symbolically important to Mr Saakashvili who has been steering Georgia towards the West since he became leader after a revolution in 2003.
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(News report from Issue No. 75, published on Feb. 2 2012)
FEB. 1 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, visited Fiji to boost relations between the countries. Media speculated that the real purpose of the trip, the first by a Russian foreign minister to the Pacific island nation, was to persuade Fiji to support the independence of the Georgian breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
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(News report from Issue No. 75, published on Feb. 2 2012)
JAN. 21 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Alla Dzhioyeva, South Ossetia’s ex-education minister who beat a Moscow-backed candidate in a presidential election last year, demanded she be handed power. A re-run of the annulled election is scheduled for March 25. Political tension in the Georgian rebel state is potentially explosive for the region.
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(News report from Issue No. 74, published on Jan. 26 2012)
JAN. 18 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – In its annual growth forecasts, the World Bank said weakening markets in the West would hit the developing world in 2012. For 2012 growth forecasts for Central Asia and the South Caucasus were: Tajikistan 6%, Kyrgyzstan 5.5%, Kazakhstan 5.5%, Uzbekistan 8%, Turkmenistan N/A, Azerbaijan 3.1%, Georgia 5%, Armenia 4.3%.
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(News report from Issue No. 73, published on Jan. 19 2012)
JAN. 18 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili will travel to Washington to meet US president Barack Obama on Jan. 30, a White House spokesperson said. Mr Saakashvili considers the US to be a key ally. Georgia has pledged to almost double its troop deployment in Afghanistan to 1,700, the most from a non-NATO member.
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(News report from Issue No. 73, published on Jan. 19 2012)
JAN. 8 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Somali pirates freed 15 Georgian sailors and three Turkish sailors they captured in the Gulf of Aden in Sept. 2010, Georgia’s government said. Georgian officials did not say why the sailors were released or whether a $9m ransom was paid.
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(News report from Issue No. 72, published on Jan. 13 2012)
JAN. 6 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Taliban forces killed a Georgian solider in Afghanistan, the 12th to die supporting NATO operations, Georgia’s government said. The solider was the second Georgian solider to die in a week. Georgia’s troop deployment in Afghanistan is one of the biggest by a non-NATO member.
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(News report from Issue No. 72, published on Jan. 13 2012)
DEC. 30 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia exchanged 13 prisoners with the rebel state of South Ossetia, the largest swap since the end of a war in Aug. 2008. The OSCE and the European Union brokered prisoner swaps are considered an important step in restoring trust. In Feb. 2011, the sides exchanged 11 prisoners each.
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(News report from Issue No. 71, published on Jan. 5 2012)
DEC. 27 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Georgian court denied citizenship to Bidzina Ivanishvili, the country’s richest man and main political rival to President Mikheil Saakashvili. Mr Ivanishvili lives in Georgia and was born in the country but he currently holds Russian and French citizenship. He has said he will renounce both in order to become a Georgian citizen and enter politics.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 71, published on Jan. 5 2012)
JAN. 1 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – A blast killed a Georgian soldier in Afghanistan, the 11th to die supporting the US-led war, the government said. Georgia currently has 900 soldiers in Afghanistan, one of the biggest from a non-NATO member. One of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s main ambitions is to join NATO.
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(News report from Issue No. 71, published on Jan. 5 2012)
