NOV. 18 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan and the US finished decommissioning a nuclear reactor in eastern Kazakhstan and securing highly enriched uranium and plutonium capable of making 775 nuclear weapons. In Georgia, officials said they arrested four people carrying radioactive material which could have been used in a dirty bomb.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 16, published on Nov. 22 2010)
NOV. 22 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Control of the Caspian Sea and its resources are worth arguing over.
It is the biggest inland body of water in the world, covering an area about the size of Germany, and dominates trade routes between Europe and Asia. The Caspian Sea also holds vast stocks of sturgeon which produce the lucrative caviar. Most tantalising, though, is the oil potential.
Its reserves are difficult to estimate but the US Energy Information Administration puts them at between 17b and 44b barrels of oil — equivalent to the oil reserves of Qatar at the bottom end of the scale and to the United States at the upper end.
The five states which border the Caspian Sea — Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan — have argued over its ownership for years. On Nov. 18 in Baku the heads of these countries met for their third summit in eight years on how to divide the Caspian Sea and its treasures between them. Once again much was promised but little agreed.
Writing for Asia Times Online, Robert Cutler, a Canada-based academic, commented: “While the framework for a relatively minor security cooperation agreement was endorsed, the summit’s real significance lay in the agreements not reached and documents not signed.”
Before 1991, ownership of the Caspian Sea was less complex as it only needed an agreement between the Soviet Union and Iran. Now, with five countries, it’s far more difficult. Add into the mix the Caspian Sea’s emergence as an energy transit route to Europe and the debates heat up.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 16, published on Nov. 22 2010)
NOV. 18 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Alongside China, Russia, Cuba, Iraq and Morocco, Kazakhstan will not attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo next month, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said. This year the committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to an imprisoned Chinese dissident angering China. China is one of Kazakhstan’s biggest investors.
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(News report from Issue No. 16, published on Nov. 22 2010)
NOV. 18 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – The leaders of the five countries that border the Caspian Sea met for a summit in Baku to discuss the sea’s disputed ownership but they failed to sign any major agreements. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had arrived on Nov.17 for separate bilateral talks with Azerbaijan’s President.
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(News report from Issue No. 16, published on Nov. 22 2010)
NOV. 11/12 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Continuing a busy diplomatic period, Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov hosted talks with Turkish President Abdullah Gul on future energy supplies. Turkey needs extra supplies for the EU-backed Nabucco pipeline which will carry gas from Turkey to Europe.
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(News report from Issue No. 15, published on Nov. 15 2010)
NOV. 9 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit neighbouring Azerbaijan for a two-day Caspian Sea summit starting on Nov. 18, Iranian news agency ISNA said. Iran’s ambassador in Baku later told the Azerbaijani Trend news agency Ahmadinejad would visit on Nov. 17-18 at the invitation of Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev.
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(News report from Issue No. 15, published on Nov. 15 2010)
NOV. 12 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan agreed to allow the US military to use more direct flight routes across its air space. The deal signed in Washington by a senior State Department official and the Kazakh ambassador will save the US military fuel and time on flights to Afghanistan.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 15, published on Nov. 15 2010)
NOV. 3 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia and Iran agreed to drop visa requirements for their nationals and to introduce a direct air link between Tbilisi and Tehran. Iran has been trying to boost relations with the South Caucasus in the face of tightening UN sanctions promoted by the US.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 14, published on Nov. 8 2010)
NOV. 3 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — The US renewed a lucrative jet fuel contract for its airbase in Kyrgyzstan with oil trading company Mina Corp. The current Kyrgyz administration views Mina Corp. with suspicion because of its links to ousted President Kurmanbek Bakieyev and had asked the US to revoke the contract.
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(News report from Issue No. 14, published on Nov. 8 2010)
NOV. 8 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Since Mikheil Saakashvili became Georgia’s president in 2004, the US has considered Georgia its most reliable ally in the South Caucasus.
But this year Georgia, perhaps worried by US President Barack Obama’s drive to mend ties with Russia which it fought in a 2008 war, has steadily improved relations with one of the US’ biggest enemies — Iran.
Iran has also been on a determined charm offensive in the South Caucasus and Central Asia. Facing increasing international isolation over its nuclear development programme, Iran has reached out to its former Soviet neighbours — especially Azerbaijan and Tajikistan — and visits regularly for talks on trade and cultural affairs.
On Nov. 3, Iran’s foreign finister Manouchehr Mottaki visited Tbilisi. Alongside improving air links between Tehran and Tbilisi and dropping visa requirements, Iran will open up a consulate in the Georgian Black Sea port of Batumi, a favoured holiday destination for Iranians. Iran already pays Georgia for electricity supplies and, importantly for Georgia, has refused to recognise the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
This budding friendship is likely to irritate the US which suspects Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon. It has already expressed displeasure at Iranian overtures in the South Caucasus.
On Oct. 19, a few days after Iran’s defence minister visited Azerbaijan, the US sent a senior Treasury Department official to Baku to warn Azerbaijan against improving ties with Tehran.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 14, published on Nov. 8 2010)
