JULY 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Confirming its support for NATO’s mission in Afghanistan, Georgia said it would commit 750 soldiers to the non-combat mission phase, media reported. Georgia has been using its military as an extension of its diplomatic arm, supporting missions to curry favour with NATO which it hopes to join.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
JULY 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, visited Tashkent, a hugely symbolic gesture between the two countries. Relations between Uzbekistan and Turkey have been stained over the past few years and Mr Davutoglu was the first Turkish foreign minister to visit Tashkent for 10 years.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
JULY 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – French president Francois Hollande will visit Kazakhstan in the second half of 2014, the Kazakh government said. France has major investments in Kazakhstan and cooperation is growing between the two countries. There is also talk of setting up direct flights to Astana from Paris.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
JULY 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – As announced last month, Kazakhstan dropped visa requirements from 10 countries for people staying less than 15 days. The move is a trial but could be expanded if successful. The countries are the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, the UAE, Malaysia, the Netherlands, S.Korea, and Japan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
JULY 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A new report released by the Kyrgyz government’s main think tank, the National Institute of Strategic Studies (NISS), said that joining the Customs Union (CU) and the Eurasian Economic Union (EaEU) may trigger short term economic and social discomfort.
The report is the first serious analysis of the costs and benefits of membership carried out by the government itself. It will make for troubling reading for President Almazbek Atambayev who is still trying to sell the idea of membership of the CU/EaEU to the general public.
Membership of the CU will probably trigger inflation which may lead to political unrest and possibly even a rise in Islamic radicalism, the report said. The Macroeconomic situation may subsequently improve, the report added, without making predictions as to how long that might take.
The report also stressed several benefits of the CU, including duty-free oil imports from Russia — a benefit Kyrgyzstan already enjoys — and security via the Collective Security Treaty Organization, of which Kyrgyzstan is already a member.
On Kyrgyzstan’s frail democracy, the report was also incisive. Parliamentarianism would be better developed outside the EaEU than inside it, while norms of governance and nationalist sentiment in Russia could hamper Kyrgyzstan’s political development, the report said.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
JULY 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will visit Dushanbe on Sept. 12/13 during a meeting of the shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the China and Russia led Central Asia military alliance. Tajikistan has close cultural and economic ties with Iran.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
JULY 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said the notoriously stand-offish country would open up an embassy in Bishkek, the second new diplomatic outpost it has announced in the last few days.
Last month, Mr Berdymukhamedov said Turkmenistan would also open an office in Tbilisi. The common thread is that these are both countries in the former Soviet Union that Turkmenistan is now partnering with on energy projects.
In Georgia, Turkmenistan is interested in utilising the South Caucasus energy corridor to Europe. In Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan sees an increasingly important partner for sending gas to China, its key client.
Over the past few years, Turkmenistan has transformed itself into a major gas exporter. It has become rich and increasingly open. As well as funding various follies, such as an Olympic stadium and building white marble facades around its government buildings, some funds have gone into burnishing Turkmenistan’s image abroad. This includes opening new embassies.
Mr Berdymukhamedov’s predecessor, Saparmurat Niyazov, was a notorious recluse. Part of Mr Berdymukhamedov’s recent success has been his willingness to open up to the world, a strategy that appears to be continuing.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
JULY 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan is negotiating the extradition of two diplomats languishing in a German prison for smuggling cigarettes, media reported. A court in Frankfurt jailed the diplomats in April. One of the jailed men was Kazakhstan’s General Consul in Frankfurt.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
JULY 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Speaking at a ceremony where government staff received free housing, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev said that $100m of a $1.2b fund from Russia designated for Kyrgyzstan’s Customs Union entry would go towards a pot for cheap credit for citizens looking to buy homes.
“Having a roof over your head means having freedom and happiness,” said Atambayev at the ceremony. Kyrgyzstan may formally enter the economic alliance, which is set to become the Eurasian Economic Union, as early as autumn this year.
Housing is a politicised issue in Kyrgyzstan, with illegal land grabs affecting the country’s two main cities, Bishkek and Osh. Poor rural migrants have formed new settlements, often unconnected to municipal services like electricity, stretching for miles beyond both cities.
The Customs Union is also a highly politicised issue and Mr Atambayev has been at pains to emphasis the benefits of tighter relations with Russia and the joint Kyrgyz-Russian fund. With a start-up capital of $500 million in Russian credits, the fund has been heralded as a means to strengthen Kyrgyzstan’s industrial capacity and move it away from an economic model structured on re-exporting cheap Chinese goods.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JULY 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a visit to London, Tajik foreign minister Sirodjidin Aslov met with his British counterpart William Hague. Tajikistan and Britain have been cultivating close relations but the arrest on spying charges of a Tajik researcher linked to Exeter University in June has strained ties.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
