JUNE 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The number of people travelling by air directly between Tbilisi and Moscow has risen by 65%, Georgia’s government said. Georgia and Russia have only recently re-started direct flights between the countries. The data shows just how important an air-link is between the two capitals for trade and tourism.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
MAY 28-30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek President Islam Karimov completed a three day state visit to South Korea which laid the foundations to further develop relations between the two countries.
Mr Karimov and South Korean president Park Geun-hye signed deals worth $7.7b. The agreements cover many sectors ranging from financial to medical to agriculture sectors.
Compare the $7.7b worth of deals to trade between Uzbekistan and South Korea of $1.9b last year.
Mr Karimov appears to have deliberately chosen South Korea for his first foreign trip following his re-election in March for two important reasons.
South Korea is a close ally of the West, and a reception in Seoul offers Mr Karimov’s recognition and credence, and may serve as a stepping-stone for recognition by other capitals.
It is also important to note that Mr Karimov chose a country to visit that would not irritate either Moscow or Washington.
And there is also a cold, hard economic reason for choos- ing to visit South Korea so soon after winning re-election. Mr Karimov needs hard currency to boost the economy, which has been in a downward spiral since Western sanctions hit Russia and dented remittances.
South Korea and Uzbekistan are closely linked. The Soviet Dictator moved thousands of Koreans to Uzbekistan in the 1930s and 1940s.
There is still a large Korean diaspora living in Uzbekistan and, as well as being an important investor in Uzbekistan, after Russia and Kazakhstan, South Korea generates the most remittance flow.
An agreement from Mr Karimov’s trip to Seoul on the mutual recognition of drivers’ licenses also suggested that the two parties are expecting closer ties between the countries.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
JUNE 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan will start to take shipments of low-grade enriched uranium from 2017, Timur Zhantikin, an official in the Kazakh energy ministry said, two years after original hoped-for start date.
Uranium has been an important part of Kazakhstan’s post-Soviet story. When it became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991, Kazakhstan inherited a batch of nuclear weapons. Rather than selling them, abandoning them or hoarding them, Kazakhstan turned the nuclear weapons over to the US to be deposed of safely, winning plaudits around the world.
Since then, eager to win the Nobel Peace Prize, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has promoted Kazakhstan as a leader in nuclear-disarmament.
Now it has struck a deal with the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the world’s nuclear watchdog, to host a bank of low grade enriched uranium.
Countries can apply for enriched uranium if projects have been approved for peaceful purposes.
The two year delay in setting up the nuclear bank is only a minor nuisance. It should still be a boon to Kazakhstan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
JUNE 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Defence minister from CSTO member states flew into Dushanbe for their annual meeting, set to begin on June 4. The Collective Security Treaty Organisation includes Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
JUNE 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan’s energy ministry pledged to help Iraq explore for more oil.
The joint agreement was important because it underlined Azerbaijan’s determination to play a greater role in regional affairs. Iraq has been looking for partners to explore for more oil deposits and, although this agreement doesn’t actually put an exploration phase in motion, it does lay important groundwork for one.
Natig Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s energy minister, said: “We’re talking about investing in Iraq. We plan to choose there one of the projects, that is, an oilfield, and will work on it. In turn, Iraqi companies have been invited to participate in projects in Azerbaijan. I’m sure this collaboration will be productive.”
Azerbaijan has assumed an increasingly important role in the region.
Azerbaijan has hosted Afghan government delegations and promised to play a role in developing government institutions there, Israel considers Azerbaijan to be a regional ally and Baku has also rebuilt relations with Tehran over the last couple of years.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
MAY 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The New York-based Human Rights Watch said EU leaders should do more to pressure Azerbaijan into releasing journalists, human rights defenders and critics of the government from prison. Azerbaijan has detained and imprisoned dozens of opposition activists over the past few years.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a trip to Seoul, Uzbek president Islam Karimov met his South Korean counterpart Park Geun-hye to sign a series of deals and to confirm renewed Uzbekistan-Korean partnership. South Korea has been building links with Uzbekistan, rich in natural resources.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s parliament unanimously approved a Tajik-China extradition law. China is increasing its influence across Central Asia, a region it considers to be its backyard.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s parliament, the Majilis, approved a decree on the delimitation of the Caspian Sea bed with Kazakhstan an important step, to smoothing out the ongoing row between the countries which ring the Caspian Sea on how to divide up its potential hydrocarbon riches.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – At an EU summit in Riga which included former Soviet states in the South Caucasus, Armenia signed a declaration supporting improved cooperation with Brussels. The Armenian delegation, though, declined to support a communique that was negative of Russia’s interference in Ukraine.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
