SEPT. 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a thinly veiled reference to Azerbaijan’s weapons purchases from Israel, Iranian navy commander Habibollah Sayari told local media that some Caspian Sea countries wanted to disrupt peace in the region. Azerbaijan has been spending billions of dollars in recent years bolstering its military.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 151, published on Sept. 11 2013)
SEPT. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Maybe, just maybe, the Nabucco pipeline project is not dead yet. That was the message given out by Natik Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s oil and gas minister, on Sept. 5.
Nabucco was the ambitious project backed by Central European countries to pump gas from Azerbaijan’s sector of the Caspian Sea.
After years of planning and negotiations it lost out on the lucrative contract earlier this year to a rival bid, the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). TAP will pump Azerbaijani gas to Europe through the Balkans and under the Adriatic Sea to Italy.
And that looked like that for Nabucco.
Except that now Mr Aliyev has opened up the possibility of building another pipeline to carry gas to Europe.
“Nabucco is not dead,” he said, according to media reports. “It depends on our resources and I think that we have enough resources to increase production.”
Azerbaijan and Europe have become increasingly dependent on each other over the past few years. Europe has been desperately trying to reduce its dependency on gas from Russia, seen as an unreliable partner. Azerbaijan has also been keen to diversify its client base away from Russia.
When the Caspian Sea gas field Shah Deniz II starts production in 2019/2020 it will transform Azerbaijan’s energy outlook. It may also need more pipelines snaking from the Caspian Sea towards Europe.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 151, published on Sept. 11 2013)
SEPT. 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Serzh Sargsyan, the Armenian president, sent shock waves across the South Caucasus and Europe when he signed Armenia up for Russia’s Customs Union.
The Kremlin set up the Customs Union in 2011 to ease trade between its partners and to draw them in closer. Commentators have dubbed it a Eurasian Union to counter the European Union.
Until Armenia moved into the Customs Union, only Kazakhstan and Belarus had joined. Kyrgyzstan has said it will join and Tajikistan has also been eyeing up membership.
Few though predicted Armenia’s jump towards Russia.
Mr Sargsyan’s decision to move into the Customs Union was a snub for European diplomats.
It’s not, perhaps, that surprising though. Armenia has been casting around for friends to provide a bulwark against Azerbaijan and Turkey. Armenia is still officially at war with Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Turkey is a key Azerbaijan ally.
Russia has given financial and military support to Armenia and maintains a large army base in Armenia. Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly, also owns 80% of Armenia’s gas distributor and has been trying to buy the outstanding 20%.
Even so, Armenia’s move into the Customs Union will be felt across the region for years.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 151, published on Sept. 11 2013)
SEPT. 7 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The chairman of Iran’s parliament, Ali Larijani, led a high-level delegation to Turkmenistan on a mission to broaden cooperation between the two neighbours, media reported. Relations between Turkmenistan and Iran have been improving over the past few years.
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(News report from Issue No. 151, published on Sept. 11 2013)
SEPT. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan may need another gas pipeline once Shah Deniz II starts production in 2019/2020, media quoted the Azerbaijani energy minister, Natik Aliyev, as saying. His statement may breathe fresh life into the Nabucco project which lost out on pumping gas to Europe earlier this year.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 151, published on Sept. 11 2013)
AUG. 28 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) –Kazakh football team Shakhter Karagandy narrowly missed out on becoming the first side from Kazakhstan to compete in the UEFA Champions League group stages after losing 3-0 in Glasgow, Scotland, to Celtic. Shakhter Karagandy had beaten Celtic 2-0 in the first leg of the tie a week earlier in Astana.
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(News report from Issue No. 150, published on Sept. 2 2013)
AUG. 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Irish Distillers, a subsidiary of Pernod Ricard, has lost the rights to the Jameson whiskey brand name in Uzbekistan, RFE/RL reported. A local company owns the Jameson brand name through a 2008 patent, the court ruled. Western companies have previously struggled to defend intellectual property in Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 150, published on Sept. 2 2013)
AUG. 30 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan Airways, the state-owned airline, has placed an order for two new Dreamliner Boeings, media reported. Neither the Uzbek government nor Boeing have confirmed these reports. In August, senior Boeing executives reportedly travelled to Tashkent for meetings with Uzbek government officials.
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(News report from Issue No. 150, published on Sept. 2 2013)
AUG. 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A diplomatic scandal centred on the status of the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh is likely to lead to the sacking of Lithuania’s envoy in Baku.
Lithuania’s media is reporting that Dalia Grybauskaite, the Lithuanian President, is likely to fire her envoys to Hungary and Azerbaijan after they were recorded describing Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Armenia.
The diplomatic spat not only embarrasses Lithuania but also acts as a wider reminder of Nagorno-Karabakh’s ultra-sensitive status. Azerbaijan and Armenia are still at war over Nagorno-Karabakh and only a 1994 UN negotiated ceasefire holds a shaky peace.
There are still almost weekly shoot-outs between the opposing armies and Azerbaijan has pledged to re-take the enclave from Armenia-backed forces.
Ms Grybauskaite has, apparently, acted after a recording of a private conversation between Arturas Zurauskas, Lithuania’ ambassador in Baku, and Renatas Juska, Lithuania’s ambassador in Budapest, surfaced on YouTube in July.
In the recording the men agree that Nagorno-Karabakh should be considered Armenian. They also refer to the enclave by its Armenian name, Artsakh. Azerbaijan stakes its own historical claim to the province.
The incident also serves as a reminder of the increased diplomatic clout that Azerbaijan’s burgeoning energy wealth has now given it.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 150, published on Sept. 2 2013)
AUG. 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan has asked South Korea about buying military planes, warships and artillery worth $3b, media reported. The story first surfaced in a Korean newspaper and hasn’t been confirmed by Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has spent billions of dollars on re-arming its military, mainly on kit from Russia.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 150, published on Sept. 2 2013)
