JUNE 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan and Iran will sign a deal improving post and information technology connections, media reported, an important step for improving relations between the two neighbours. Azerbaijan-Iran relations have improved with the election last year of Hassan Rouhani as Iranian president.
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(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
JUNE 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – South Korean president Park Geun-hye started a six day trip to Central Asia by visiting Tashkent.
There Ms Guen-hye pledged to increase cooperation in gas and solar power sector.
This was just the first stage in an important Central Asia trip for the South Korean leader. Ms Guen-hye now travels to Astana and then to Ashgabat laying down a serious marker in the region.
Central Asia is a natural region for South Korea to look to carve out an overseas trade foothold. Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ensured that this was the case.
In the 1930s, worried about their loyalty, Stalin moved hundreds of thousands of Koreans living in the east of the Soviet Union to Central Asia. Most settled around Tashkent or Almaty.
Now both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have large Korean minorities. Many ethnic Koreans are involved in business and some in politics. There are Korean restaurants in cities in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and transport links with Seoul are well-established.
Ms Geun-hye is looking to leverage these ties to ensure that South Korea is able to tap into the region’s energy reserves as well as putting Korean companies in a good position to do business.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
JUNE 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian president Giorgi Margveleshvili flew to Kiev for the inauguration of the new Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, underling Georgia’s support for Ukraine’s fight against pro-Russia separatists. Georgia’s former president Mikheil Saakashvili was also at the ceremony.
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(News report from Issue No. 188, published on June 11 2014)
JUNE 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s PM Djoomart Otorbayev said the country would be a member of the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union by the end of 2014, Itar-Tass news agency reported. Mr Otorbayev’s comments were another indication that Kyrgyzstan is steadily moving towards Russia’s sphere of influence.
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(News report from Issue No. 188, published on JUNE 11 2014)
JUNE 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – South Korean president Park Geun-hye will visit Uzbekistan next week as part of a tour of Central Asia that also includes Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, media reported quoting an Uzbek government source. There are large Koran ethnic minorities living in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 188, published on JUNE 11 2014)
JUNE 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A contingent of 140 Georgian soldiers flew to the Central African Republic (CAR) to support an EU military mission, media reported. The deployment to CAR — where Georgia has no historical, cultural, linguistic or diplomatic links — is designed to promote Georgia’s drive to join the EU.
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(News report from Issue No. 188, published on June 11 2014)
JUNE 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) -Turkey plans to increase the amount of gas from Turkmenistan that it transports to Europe, media quoted Turkish President Abdullah Gul as saying at the end of a trip to Ankara by Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov. Turkmenistan has become a major gas producer over the past few years.
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(News report from Issue No. 188, published on JUNE 11 2014)
JUNE 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Malaysia’s PM Datuk Razak visited Ashgabat for talks with Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov on how to develop Islamic banking in the Central Asian state.
This is significant because Malaysia is the home of Islamic banking and also because it shows that Turkmenistan may be serious about developing out another section of its economy. Turkmenistan’s new found international status is built on gas exports.
Mr Razak also clearly had an agenda for boosting the presence of Malaysia’s state-owned energy company Petronas in Turkmenistan. Mr Razak said that Petronas had already invested about $8b in Turkmenistan’s energy sector.
“The Turkmenistan President is keen that Malaysia becomes a partner in all areas. This is because his confidence in Malaysia is very high,” Mr Razak said before flying back to Malaysia. “Malaysia has become a priority nation for Turkmenistan.”
Maybe but currently trade outside the oil and gas sector between Malaysia and Turkmenistan is light. Media reported that bilateral trade amounted to just $33m last year and that only 940 Malaysian tourists visited Turkmenistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 188, published on June 11 2014)
JUNE 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – So eager is Georgia to show off its impeccable NATO credentials that it has agreed to retain one battalion of roughly 700 soldiers in Afghanistan next year.
Irakli Alasania, Georgia’s defence minister, announced the news after meeting NATO officials in Europe. This will effectively halve Georgia’s commitments in Afghanistan. At its peak Georgia had over 1,600 soldiers in Afghanistan supporting NATO missions. Twenty-nine Georgian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan.
The symbolism is all important. While most NATO member countries are rushing to extract their kit and soldiers from Afghanistan after a long, costly and frustrating campaign, Georgia has applied to remain with the final contingent of US forces.
Georgia is desperate to join NATO, partly as a bulwark against its former colonial overlord Russia with which it fought a brief war in 2008.
But NATO members are being cautious. Although they have shown support for Georgia’s NATO aspirations, and annual military exercises between Georgian and US forces started on June 9, they have also been wary of embracing it too warmly.
Both US President Barack Obama and Herman Chancellor Angela Merkel said that NATO would not offer Georgia membership at its annual conference in Cardiff in September.
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(News report from Issue No. 188, published on June 11 2014)
JUNE 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia accused Azerbaijan of killing two of its soldiers along the border of the disputed region of Nagorno- Karabakh, raising tension around one of the South Caucasus most delicately-balanced flash-points.
Shootouts are common between the two countries around Nagorno-Karabakh, where a barely discernible peace is held together by a fragile 1994 UN-negotiated cease-fire, but the heightened war-mongering rhetoric from Armenia alarmed international observers.
Azerbaijan denied the accusations.
Both sides are playing to their internal audience. The problem for Armenia is that the rhetoric has serious geopolitical implications.
It wants to join the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union which also counts Belarus and Kazakhstan as members. Armenia has the support of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Its dispute with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh has, though, caused some consternation. Media reported that Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev raised objections to Armenia’s membership because of its dispute over Nagorno- Karabakh a the signing ceremony last month.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 188, published on June 11 2014)
