JULY 10 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz finance minister Akylbek Japarov flew to Tehran to sign a memorandum of understanding with Iranian trade minister Mehdi Ghazanfari on boosting links between the two countries, media reported. Kyrgyzstan and Iran want to generate bilateral trade of $2b a year. Iran has been increasing its ties with Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 096, published on July 13 2012)
JULY 5 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Security services in Kyrgyzstan said they have detained the minister for social development, Ravshan Sabirov, for allegedly planning to take a bribe. The day before, the security services said, they arrested Mr Sabirov’s assistant for taking a $10,000 bribe, cash he alleged was going to his boss.
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(News report from Issue No. 095, published on July 6 2012)
JUNE 27 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Parliamentarians in Kyrgyzstan voted against nationalising the Kumtor gold mine owned by Canada’s Centerra Gold, after a report accused it of a series of environmental infringements. Instead, parliament ordered a review to recommend boosting its stake in Centerra Gold, which currently stands at 33%.
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(News report from Issue No. 094, published on June 29 2012)
JUNE 15 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kommersant, a respected Russian business newspaper, quoted sources close to governments in Central Asia describing negotiations with the US over potentially abandoning some military equipment during its withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014.
The sources said that, as a money-saving plan, senior US generals had discussed leaving trucks, medical and fire-fighting equipment and even armoured vehicles in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
NATO’s exit from Afghanistan is already sensitive and complex. US relations with Pakistan have broken down leaving Central Asia as the only alternative.
This means making deal with government whose human rights record falls, to put it mildly, below Western standards. Russia and China also take a close interest in Central Asia, making NATO’s potential withdrawal through the region even more sensitive.
But NATO has persevered and seemingly managed to carve itself out the route it needs.
Leaving kit in Central Asia though, even if it’s of the non-lethal variety, has not publicly been part of the plan. This has upset the Russians just when NATO needs their support.
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(News report from Issue No. 093, published on June 22 2012)
JUNE 15 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev told the deputy commander of China’s army, Ma Xiaotian, that he wanted to deepen relations between the two countries’ militaries, media reported. China has already built up strong links with the armies in Central Asia through the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
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(News report from Issue No. 093, published on June 22 2012)
JUNE 19 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan has announced it will tender mining rights to 93 gold deposits on Aug. 20/21, media reported. Mining, especially gold, is Kyrgyzstan’s main economic lifeline and the Kumtor mine, operated by Toronto-listed Centerra Gold, accounts for around a third of the country’s GDP.
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(News report from Issue No. 093, published on June 22 2012)
JUNE 4 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – NATO’s general-secretary, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, announced that transit deals had been struck with Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan to allow the Western military alliance to withdraw kit from Afghanistan across their territories. The deals cement the strategic and political importance of Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 091, published on June 8 2012)
JUNE 4 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Villagers living near Kyrgyzstan’s most important single economic entity, the Kumtor gold mine, blocked the only road leading to the site for three days in a protest over environmental protection. Kumtor generates roughly 12% of Kyrgyzstan’s GDP. Officials said the protest did not stop production, unlike a strike earlier this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 091, published on June 8 2012)
MAY 8 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Sixteen people died when an overcrowded mini-bus carrying migrant workers to Russia from southern Kyrgyzstan hit an oncoming truck. The route to and from Russia is lucrative as hundreds of thousands of workers, especially from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, work in Russia. The roads, though, can be dangerous.
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(News report from Issue No. 087, published on May 11 2012)
MAY 9 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Chzhunnen Oil Exploration, a Chinese company, said it had found oil in southern Kyrgyzstan, raising hopes of developing a small but important energy industry. Soon after Chzhunnen said it had produced a test barrel of oil at a well, Kyrgyz leaders pledged support for further investment.
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(News report from Issue No. 087, published on May 11 2012)
