Tag Archives: Tajikistan

Japanese PM begins Grand Tour of Central Asia with stopover in Turkmenistan

OCT. 23 2015, BISHKEK (The Conway Bulletin) — Japanese PM Shinzo Abe began a tour of the five Central Asian Stans designed to boost links with the region.

The trip started in Turkmenistan, where Mr Abe signed deals worth over $18b in the chemical and power sectors.

This was the first official visit by a Japanese PM to Turkmenistan, proof of the country’s growing status as a global energy exporter.

Stopovers in Dushanbe and Bishkek will also mark the first official visits to Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan for a Japanese leader.

Central Asia has been attracting high-profile interest from Asian leaders over the past few years. In 2013, China’s President Xi Jinping completed a similar Grand Tour of the region and this year Indian PM Narendra Modi also visited all five Stans.

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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

VimpelCom sells kit in Kazakhstan, Armenia

OCT. 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian telecoms company VimpelCom said it is selling 50,000 phone towers across the former Soviet Union for $5b. VimpelCom, headquartered in the Netherlands, hired several banks to broker the deal. Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are among the countries involved in the deal.

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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Russia wants to patrol Tajik-Afghan border

OCT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s deputy minister of defence, General Yuri Borisov, said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was in talks with Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon to station soldiers on the Tajik-Afghan border to fight off any potential threat from the Taliban. Russia and Central Asian leaders have grown increasingly wary of the push north of the Taliban.

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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct.16 2015)

Russia sends attack helicopters to Tajikistan

OCT. 6 2015, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia said it will station attack helicopters at its base in Tajikistan, a strong sign the Kremlin believes the threat from the Taliban in Afghanistan to Central Asia is heightening.

A Russian Defence Ministry spokesman said Mi-24P gunships, heavily used during the Soviet Union’s war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and Mi-8 MTV transport-combat helicopters will be stationed at the Ayni airbase, 30km outside Dushanbe.

Over the past week, the Taliban and US-backed forces belonging to the Afghan central government have been fighting for control of Kunduz on the Tajik-Afghan border. And this has worried Central Asian governments throughout the year.

A Dushanbe-based analyst who wished not to be named said: “The occupation of Kunduz by the Taliban has shaken Dushanbe. Tajik authorities know that they cannot handle any threat, be it domestic or external, without the help of Russia. For Rakhmon, the Kremlin is the guarantee of stability in Tajikistan.”

Tajik President Emmomli Rakhmon had been in Moscow the day before the Kremlin said it would send attack helicopters to Tajikistan.

And most people in Dushanbe welcomed Moscow’s help. Olim Shirinov, a Dushanbe resident, said: “Every new unit of Russian military equipment on Tajik soil is one more brick in the wall that guarantees stability in the country.”

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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

China builds power plant in Tajikistan

OCT. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — NORINCO International, a Chinese engineering contractor, will build a coal-fired power plant in the Basht district, about 100km to the east of Dushanbe, helping the country increase its power generation capacity. The new plant will have a 350MW capacity. TBEA, another Chinese company, is currently building a similar power plant in Dushanbe, highlighting China’s growing role in Tajikistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Currency: Kazakh tenge, Kyrgyz som

OCT. 2-8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh tenge lost 1.5% of its value over the past week, ending at 274/$1.

Much of this perceived strength appears to lie with the Central Bank’s little secret — intervention. Despite promising never to intervene in the currency again, the Kazakh Central Bank has spent another $367.5m this week propping up its currency.

Over the border in Kyrgyzstan, the som crept briefly over 69/$1 on Oct. 6, before settling back to 68.9 in a week that saw little of the violent fluctuations of previous episodes. The Kyrgyz Central Bank also intervened in the market, selling $10.2m.

No doubt the successful and peace- ful parliamentary elections would have played well to the steady currency markets. European vote monitors were certainly impressed and that is good for Kyrgyzstan’s image.

The Georgian lari was also stable last week at 2.40. Positive economic data and a substantial stability in foreign reserves reassured lari holders.

The Tajik somoni continued its gradual devaluation against the dollar. By marginally weakening every week, the somoni has lost 2.5% of its value against the dollar over the past month.

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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Tajik coal production rises

OCT. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Coal production in Tajikistan grew by 27% in the first nine months of 2015 to 760,000 tonnes, compared to the same period last year, the government said. This is important both for export revenues and also in the run-up to winter when hydro-power slows and energy demand rises.

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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Tajikistan arrests bank chief

OCT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) -Tajik authorities arrested Samikhon Kurbonov, the former chairman of Fononbonk, because of his family ties to Saidumar Khusaini, a high- ranking member of the now banned Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT). Last week, Tajikistan’s Central Bank also placed Fononbonk under receivership.

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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

UN worries about Tajik IRPT ban

OCT. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The office of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said it was concerned of possible human rights violations linked to Tajikistan’s ban on the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT). It said the ban was an attempt to crush dissent.

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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Comment: Worry over intensifying fighting in northern Afghanistan

OCT. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia and the US are right to be increasingly concerned about intensifying fighting in northern Afghanistan.

The question is what can they do about it, if anything?

This week, Russia said it was sending a batch of attack helicopters to its base in Tajikistan. Russia is clearly in a belligerent mood, as its air strikes in Syria have also shown.

For most ordinary Tajiks, as the Bulletin reports, the attack helicopters are welcome in the country, although it is not entirely clear when Russia would actually use them.

For the US, the priority is to protect its own. It has said it is going to spend $200m strengthening its embassy in Turkmenistan.

No doubt the current embassy needed an upgrade but don’t be fooled by the cleverly spun press releases.

The US is not spending $200m rebuilding its embassy to re-affirm its commitment to Turkmenistan. It is spending $200m rebuilding its embassy on the outskirts of Ashgabat because it is nervous and the strategy now is to prioritise protection over everything else. This will be an embassy with big walls and prison-style security cut off from the rest of Turkmenistan.

Both the Russian and the US moves are a response to the Taliban threat over the border and the radical Islamic threat internally.

These threats appear to be growing, although there is debate over just how strong IS recruitment really is in the region. Both Russia and the US and the rest of Central Asia will have to get used to them.

By James Kilner, Editor, The Conway Bulletin

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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)