Tag Archives: international relations

Latvian president visits Uzbekistan

MAY 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) -Risking the ire of human rights activists, Latvian President Andris Berzins travelled to Tashkent to meet with Uzbekistan’s leader Islam Karimov.

The human rights lobby reviles Mr Karimov for allegedly imprisoning and torturing his enemies, charges he denies. It also blames Uzbek soldiers for opening fire on civilians in the town of Andijan in 2005, killing hundreds.

Mr Berzins’ visit to Tashkent was made more controversial because a trip to Uzbekistan by a European leader is so rare.

Photos of Mr Karimov and Mr Berzins walking together and inspecting a guard of honour are a propaganda coup for Uzbekistan. Mr Karimov rarely gets to hob-knob with Western leaders. He normally has to make do with yet another glad-handing photo-shoot with a senior Chinese official or perhaps with a Central Asian colleague.

So this adds extra layers of significance to Mr Berzins’ Tashkent sojourn.

Latvia is also taking over the rotating presidency of the EU in 2015 and has promised to focus on improving relations with Central Asia.

Relations between the EU and Ubekistan have been improving. NATO’s extraction from neighbouring Afghanistan through Uzbekistan has mainly driven this reconciliation but, even so, Mr Karimov is kept at arm’s length. Earlier this year, Uzbek officials cancelled a trip by Mr Karimov to the Czech Republic because government ministers had indicated that they didn’t want to meet him.

Latvia, though, has taken a different approach. There’s little doubt that Latvian-Uzbek business will increase because of it, as will Mr Karimov’s domestic standing.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 187, published on JUNE 4 2014)

Russia gives Kyrgyzstan $1.2b

May 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia has offered Kyrgyzstan $1.2b to help it join the Eurasian Economic Union (EaEU), Temir Sariev, Kyrgyzstan’s economy minister, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in an interview. Mr Sariev said that $1b would be given as a long-term loan and $200m as a grant.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 187, published on JUNE 4 2014)

Eurasian Economic Union begins in Kazakhstan

MAY 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a ceremony in Astana, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko signed into existence the Eurasian Economic Union (EaEU).

The EaEU is the successor of the Customs Union and is designed to further integrate its members’ economies. The rhetoric has been of high praise for the EaEU but the reaction on the street has been markedly different, as a correspondent for The Bulletin discovered in Almaty.

Berik, a 35-year-old office worker wasn’t even sure of the treaty. “Who are the parties involved?” he said. “Belarus and Russia. I’m not sure, with them it could go either way. It could either be a success or a failure.”

An ethnic Russian lady hurrying along the street also said she doubted the value of the group. “It would have been better if they had not signed the treaty,” she said.

Other people agreed. Most had either not heard of the EaEU or said they doubted it would be positive.

One of the few people to support the formation of the Eurasian Economic Union was Saken a 50-year-old man who worked in real estate. He said that Soviet era ties remained and that the union would be stronger than if countries pursued their own agendas.

“In the Eurasian Union we will welcome troubled countries like Kyrgyzstan and Armenia, who are not really as stable as we are, but we will definitely help them, with the same friendship we used to relate to each other during the Soviet era,” he said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 187, published on JUNE 4 2014)

Ex-PM to be Armenia’s US envoy

MAY 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tigran Sargsyan, Armenia’s former PM, is likely to become the country’s next ambassador in the US, media reported. Mr Sargsyan resigned as PM in April after six years in the job. It had been unclear, until now, what job Mr Sargysan would take on next.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)

Eurasian Bank to grant Kyrgyzstan $20m

MAY 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Eurasian Development Bank, set up to fund projects in Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) member states, agreed to lend Kyrgyzstan $20m to develop its agriculture, media reported. The EEU will replace the Customs Union which comprises of Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus. Kyrgyzstan aims to join later this year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)

Turkmenistan grows as a regional energy super-power

MAY 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Underlining Turkmenistan’s growing status, Turkmen foreign minister Rashid Meredov met with his Azerbaijani and Turkish counterparts for what was dubbed as the first of regular tri-lateral talks. Energy featured on the agenda. Over the past 5 years Turkmenistan has become a regional energy super-power.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)

European bourse signs up to Kazakh carbon scheme

MAY 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan has taken another big step towards opening Asia’s first carbon market. The European Energy Exchange (EEX), based in Leipzig in Germany, said it had signed a deal with company called Caspi JSC to help develop the carbon emissions trading scheme, media reported.

A carbon emissions market has existed in Europe for several years and Kazakhstan wants to tap into this knowledge. It’s an ambitious project but one that would benefit both Kazakhstan’s environment and its profile in Asia.

Media quoted Yelnar Nadyrgaliyev, chairman of the board of Caspi JSC.

“EEX has high expertise in operating a regulated market for emissions trading,” he said. “We are pleased to be able to benefit from that as this will be a crucial success factor in establishing an emissions market in Kazakhstan.”

Kazakhstan signed up to the Kyoto Protocols in 2009. This is the international standard, named after the Japanese city in which the treaty was signed, by which countries measure their carbon emissions output. They pledged to reduce them to below 1990 levels.

Kazakhstan is still pumping out roughly 20% less carbon emissions today than it was in 1990, when big business was booming during the Soviet Union, but since the mid-2000s its output has shot up by 40%.

Perhaps understanding that action was needed, and probably with an eye on the green agenda of his centrepiece EXPO-2017, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev introduced a cap on emissions by the country’s top 178 companies.

These companies need to, theoretically, buy credit to increase emissions. Not surprisingly, they’re not happy.

Regardless, signing up EEX, Europe’s largest power market, is an important step to creating a genuine carbon emissions trading market in Kazakhstan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)

Kazakhstanis protest against Eurasian Union

MAY 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Astana detained 20 people demonstrating against the proposed Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), two days before Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan planned to sign it into existence. The EEU is designed to replace the Customs Union. Some analysts have said that it will morph from an economic club into a political group.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)

Tajik President flying to Bahrain

MAY 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon flew to Bahrain for the start of an official thee day visit. It is his first trip to Bahrain and comes shortly after he signed a deal with Kuwait to improve relations. Mr Rakhmon is likely to sign a similar deal in Bahrain.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)

Armenia drops growth forecast

MAY 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s Central Bank dropped growth rate predictions for 2014 by around a fifth mainly because of a slowdown in Russia’s economy.

All the Central Asian and South Caucasus countries are vulnerable to a slowdown in Russia’s economy but Armenia has perhaps been the first to warn publicly of the impact.

It said economic growth this year would now be between 4.1% and 4.8%, down from an earlier prediction of between 5.4% and 6.1%. Russia is by far Armenia’s biggest trading partner and Yerevan has been looking to join the Russia- led Customs Union to cement this relationship.

But sanctions imposed by the EU and US because of Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine earlier this year have impacted its economic growth and the domino effect means that this has weighed on economies across the former Soviet Union.

Russia owns much of Armenia’s businesses, supplies its gas and is a magnet for seasonal labourers from Armenia who generate an important remittance flow.

Armenia’s Central Bank also said a delayed copper mine and a weak tax regime also hindered economic growth rates.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)