OCT. 29 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — A source in Georgia’s security service told Reuters it had arrested 20 Georgian citizens for spying for Russia. Government officials declined to confirm or deny the report. Georgia and Russia have been involved in a number of spy rows over recent years which have soured relations.
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(News report from Issue No. 13, published on Nov. 1 2010)
OCT. 19 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Relations between Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan have blossomed recently and on Oct. 19 Uzbek President Islam Karimov arrived in Ashgabat for a two day visit, his second trip in 10 months.
Mr Karimov last visited in Dec. 2009 for the opening of a gas pipeline running from Turkmenistan to China via Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. As if to highlight strengthening Uzbek-Turkmen friendship, Mr Karimov’s press office said trade in 2009 between the two neighbours had increased by 40%.
But relations haven’t always been this cosy and only since Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov took over as Turkmenistan’s president in 2006, have links visibly improved.
There was little official detail on what was discussed but talks were likely to have focused on NATO’s war in Afghanistan, gas export prices and shared concern about the growing influence of Russia in Central Asia — Kazakhstan has joined a Customs Union with Russia and Belarus and an election in Kyrgyzstan handed pro-Russia parties the balance of power — as well as concern at the development of upstream hydropower plants in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
According to Mr Karimov’s press office, the potential of a transport corridor from Central Asia to the Middle East was also on the agenda.
Combined, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan have clout in the region. Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are major gas, gold and cotton exporters and they hold nearly half of Central Asia’s roughly 60m people.
Karimov’s visit was also well timed. The day after he left, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev arrived in Ashgabat for his own talks with Mr Berdymukhamedov.
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(News report from Issue No. 12, published on Oct. 21 2010)
OCT. 18 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia withdrew its forces from a town in Georgia it had occupied since a war in 2008. News agencies quoted a Georgian spokesman saying Georgia’s forces had moved into Perevi, outside the breakaway region of South Ossetia, after Russian soldiers voluntarily withdrew.
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(News report from Issue No. 12, published on Oct. 21 2010)
OCT. 12 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan will increase defence spending by 89.7% in 2011, Finance Minister Samir Sharifov said. The extra investment will raise defence spending to 19.6% of the total government budget. Mr Sharifov said half the money would be used to buy military hardware and the rest spent on special projects.
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(News report from Issue No. 11, published on Oct. 14 2010)
OCT. 10 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Iran’s defence minister, Ahmad Vahidi, led a delegation to Azerbaijan to discuss improving military cooperation. Iran has diplomatic relations with both Azerbaijan and Armenia, who are still officially at war over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
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(News report from Issue No. 11, published on Oct. 14 2010)
OCT. 14 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Itar-Tass news agency quoted Tajik law enforcement officials saying rebels fighting government forces in the Rasht Valley in the east of the country have started to surrender. The government has blamed the rebels for a string of attacks including an ambush that killed 28 soldiers.
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(News report from Issue No. 11, published on Oct. 14 2010)
OCT. 14 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Fuelled by oil and gas exports, Azerbaijan’s economy grew by over 800% between 2000 and 2009. Its defence spending nearly, but not quite, kept up. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) estimated that over the same period, Azerbaijan’s defence budget grew by 500%.
But in June this year, Azerbaijan said it would boost defence spending in 2010 by 30% and now finance minister Samir Sharifov has said that in 2011 it will rise by nearly 90% to $3.13b.
SIPRI said that in 2000 Azerbaijan spent $251m on defence. By 2011, then, its annual defence spending will have increased by more than 1200% since 2000, outstripping economic growth.
In terms of government spending, Mr Sharifov said in 2011 Azerbaijan will spend nearly 1/5 on defence. As a proportion of its GDP it will be around 6.5%. The world’s top spenders spend up to 8% of their annual GDP on defence.
But if Mr Sharifov was explicit on the numbers, he was less explicit on how the extra cash would be spent. He said that half of it would go on buying new equipment directly and the rest on special projects. Azerbaijan’s main military concern is tension with Armenia around the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Azerbaijan and Armenia are still officially at war.
Armenia-backed forces have controlled Nagorno-Karabakh since a ceasefire in 1994 after a war in which around 30,000 people died. Soldiers from both sides still die each year in skirmishes around the mountainous region and the EU has warned the situation could deteriorate.
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(News report from Issue No. 11, published on Oct. 14 2010)
OCT. 1 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — On a trip to Tbilisi, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said NATO remained committed to granting Georgia full membership of the alliance. The day before a landmine in Afghanistan killed four Georgian soldiers, including a colonel. Georgia has about 925 soldiers in Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 10, published on Oct. 7 2010)
OCT. 6 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — A military helicopter supporting operations against Islamist militants crashed in eastern Tajikistan. Initial news reports said that 28 elite soldiers died in the crash but Tajikistan’s National Guard refuted this and said later only seven military personnel had died.
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(News report from Issue No. 10, published on Oct. 7 2010)
OCT. 6 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia and Azerbaijan argued over the death of an Armenian man found hanged in an Azeri jail. Azerbaijan said it had arrested Manvel Saribekyan for spying and that he had committed suicide. Armenia said Saribekyan was a herdsman who accidentally strayed into Azerbaijan and that he had been murdered.
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(News report from Issue No. 10, published on Oct. 7 2010)
