MAY 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Officials from Kyrgyzstan flew to Moscow to discuss joining the Russia-led Customs Union either later this year or next year, media reported. Armenia is looking to join the economic bloc, which also includes Kazakhstan and Belarus, this year but Kyrgyzstan has stalled slightly.
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(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)
MAY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s parliament passed an anti-discrimination bill it needed to implement for further integration into the EU but the conservative Orthodox Church has said it will protest against it.
Media reported that Georgia’s parliament passed the law unanimously.
The bill, its supporters and its detractors, give a good insight into the division coursing through Georgian society between modernisers and traditionalists.
The EU, which Georgia is desperate to join, has called on legislation that protects the rights of minorities. This has been generally accepted by Georgians, although the conservative Orthodox Church continues to rile against it.
And the Orthodox Church in Georgia is powerful. Patriarch Ilia II is considered a genuine power-broker, politicians cosy up to religious leaders and priests lead demonstrations. Last year, priests led a march against a gay rights parade that triggered violence. Tolerance in modern day Georgia only goes so far.
For the Church, the new laws are virtually heresy and it has promised to protest against it. Their main difficulty with the law is its protection of homosexuality.
Patriarch Ilia II was succinct. “Not a single believer will accept such law,” he said.
For NGOs pushing for the new legislation it has also been a slight disappointment. They were disappointed that the law finally adopted had been watered down from its original state.
Expect more tension between modernisers and traditionalists.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)
APRIL 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Looking for more allies in Asia, Uzbekistan plans to strengthen diplomatic ties and transport links with Bangladesh.
This Uzbek-Bangladeshi alliance, though, is based fully on business. More precisely, it is based on cotton.
An Uzbek government delegation begins a three-day visit to Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, on April 30. Media reported that it will open an embassy in the country, its first new embassy for several years, and re-start direct flights. Uzbekistan Airways had flown from Tashkent to Dhaka between 1996 and 2005 but dropped the route because it was a commercial flop. It is now expanding and it suits the diplomatic discourse to re-start the route.
The root cause of all this chumminess between Uzbekistan and Bangladesh is cotton. There are no historical, cultural or religious links. This is 21st century commercial diplomacy.
Cotton is one of Uzbekistan’s key exports but over the last few years it has found it increasingly hard to sell to the West. Western companies have grown more and more sensitive about Uzbekistan’s use of child labour to pick the cotton. Many Western companies imposed a boycott on Uzbek cotton, forcing Uzbekistan to look for new clients. It found these in China and Bangladesh.
Since 2012, cotton exports to both China and Bangladesh have increased enormously. Uzbekistan now supplies Bangladesh, one of the world’s biggest garment manufacturing countries, with 40% of its total cotton.
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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)
APRIL 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A delegation from Azerbaijan’s ministry of defence started a two-day visit to meet with their counterparts in Brazil, media reported. Azerbaijan has been looking to boost its defence sector, an area that Brazilian industry has been expanding into.
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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)
APRIL 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The president of Croatia, Ivo Josipovic, visited Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov in Ashgabat. The two day visit by Mr Josipovic is a rare trip by the head of state of an EU member nation to Turkmenistan. It underlines Turkmenistan’s importance in the international energy market.
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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)
APRIL 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Officials from Russia’s military arrived in Yerevan for talks with their Armenian counterparts, media reported. According to reports, the talks focused on strategy, military planning and the potential joint use of force. Armenia and Russia have been pulling increasingly close together.
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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)
APRIL 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a show of solidarity, the European Union will speed up a deal with Georgia to improve integration of its political and economic links.
The foreign ministers of Germany and France, Frank- Walter Steinmeier and Laurent Fabius, announced the plan on a visit to Tbilisi.
Their main aim was to reassure Georgia that the West does want Georgia in its club.
“I am sure that by the end of June the agreement will have been signed and that it is an important milestone in the history of Georgian and European relations,” Mr Steinmeier said according to media reports.
Since Russia’s de facto annexation of Crimea, the West has sent conflicting messages to Georgia. US President Barack Obama said that neither Georgia nor Ukraine would be part of NATO, although the NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen then said that the Western military alliance wanted closer associations with both countries.
In any case, clearly wary of Georgia’s difficult relations with Russia, Mr Steinmeier and Mr Fabius were eager to underline that the cooperation deal with the EU did not preclude Georgian trade with Russia.
“We don’t see any contradiction between the signing of this agreement and Georgia’s economic relations with other countries, particularly Russia,” Mr Fabius said.
For Georgia, the turmoil in Ukraine has thrown its own thorny relationship with Russia, and NATO, back into the spotlight.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)
APRIL 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Joining the Russia-led Customs Union is the right thing for Kyrgyzstan, the country’s new PM, Djoomart Otorbayev, said in an interview with the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Mr Otorbayev’s statement is important as it underlines Kyrgyzstan’s drive to join the Customs Union.
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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)
APRIL 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev attended a summit for the heads of state of the Customs Union (CU) in Minsk. The summit acted as a show of support for Russia which is facing sanctions on officials after the Kremlin’s annexation of Crimea last month. Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan are CU members.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)
APRIL 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmen state-controlled media has declined to broadcast news about the turmoil in Ukraine, the eurasianet.org website reported. Turkmenistan is one of the most repressive regimes in the world. The authorities want to avoid arousing anti-government sentiment in Turkmenistan.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)
