Tag Archives: international relations

Iran leader to visit Azerbaijan

OCT. 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani will visit Azerbaijan later this year or the start of 2015, media reported, another sign that relations between the two neighbours are improving. Relations between Azerbaijan and Iran have improved since Mr Rouhani came to power.

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(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)

Turkmenistan declares year of neutrality

OCT. 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s Council of Elders, a sort of perfunctory rubber-stamping chamber of deputies which confers some sort of plurality on President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov’s decisions, declared 2015 at the Year of Neutrality.

The declaration itself is fairly standard but it is important as a reminder that Turkmenistan follows a strictly neutral policy.

This means that while other countries in former Soviet Central Asia are becoming increasingly involved in the Russia-led Customs Union — Kazakhstan is already a member, Kyrgyzstan is on the brink of signing up and Tajikistan is eager — Turkmenistan won’t be joining them.

It also, according to the doctrine, will prevent Turkmenistan from taking sides over potential disputes over ownership of the Caspian Sea and its riches. This is important as tension between the Caspian Sea littoral states has been rising over the past few years.

And then there is also the small matter of the Taliban to consider. They have been increasing their activity around the borders of Central Asia recently, pressuring

Turkmenistan, even, into strengthening is border security.

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(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)

Kazakhstan to enter WTO

OCT. 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan will have cleared all the hurdles to their eventual accession into the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by the end of the year, media quoted deputy PM Bakytzhan Sagintayev as saying. This is important as Kazakhstan has been negotiating entry to the WTO since the 1990s.

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(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)

Kazakhstan signed extradition treaty with Italy

OCT. 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh lower house of parliament ratified an extradition treaty with Italy, media reported, part of a process by Kazakhstan to update its legal treaties. Last year, Kazakhstan illegally transferred the wife of the then fugitive businessman Mukhtar Ablyazov from Rome.

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(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)

Kazakh President signs EU deal

OCT. 8-9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev flew to Brussels to sign a deal that will bring Kazakhstan, economically, closer to the European Union.

Concerns, though, over Kazakhstan’s human rights and corruption records threatened to overshadow Mr Nazarbayev’s trip. He is also facing increased pressure over Kazakhstan’s alliance with Russia which is accused of aiding separatist fighters in Ukraine.

European Union and United States sanctions on Russia have hit linked-in economies, including Kazakhstan.

“Sanctions, especially economic ones, are not helpful to anyone neither Europe, nor Kazakhstan or Russia,” Mr Nazarbayev said at a joint press conference with Jose Manuel Barroso, the EU’s outgoing chief.

The EU-Kazakhstan agreement, which took nearly four years to sign, will boost Kazakhstan’s application to enter the World Trade Organisation, enhance energy and security cooperation and air travel links.

The so-called Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement also makes Kazakhstan the European Union’s most important partner both in Central Asia and the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union.

Importantly tariffs remain unchanged as they are central to the Eurasian Economic Union that Kazakhstan is a member of alongside Russia and Belarus.

And this is important. Kazakhstan is trying to play both Russia and the European Union with its self-described multi-vector foreign policy. While Mr Nazarbayev talked with the European Union, Kazakh senators in Astana ratified a new Eurasian Economic Union treaty.

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