Tag Archives: Tajikistan

Kazakh president snubs Moscow military meeting for US diplomat

MAY 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev appears to have triggered a minor international row by snubbing a meeting of a former Soviet military group in favour of talks with a senior US diplomat.

Mr Nazarbayev had been due to travel to Moscow for a meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a military group that includes Russia, Belarus, Tajikistan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan.

Instead he decided to meet with the US deputy Secretary of State, William Burns, in Astana.

Officials were quick to deny there was a problem even though all the other CSTO leaders turned up in Moscow for a meeting chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mr Nazarbayev was conspicuous by his absence.

Back in Astana, to make the situation even more uncomfortable for Mr Nazarbayev, diplomats told journalists that Mr Burns had asked Mr Nazarbayev to try and use his influence with Mr Putin to relax Russia’s pressure in eastern Ukraine.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)

Tajik aluminium production falls

MAY 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – TALCO, the aluminium plant that is at the centre of Tajikistan’s economy, cut production by 39.5% between January and March, media reported quoting the economy and trade ministry. TALCO had predicted a fall in aluminium production in February. It blamed the fall on a global crash in aluminium prices.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)

Turkmenistan’s president visits Tajikistan

MAY 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — They may be neighbours but Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has had little time over the past four years to visit his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rakhmon.

Now though, Mr Berdymukhamedov has been in Dushanbe catching up with Mr Rakhmon and mulling various projects, particularly in the energy and transport sector.

It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to hear of Mr Berdymukhamedov’s first trip to Dushanbe since 2010. The geo-politics of gas has thrown these two countries together.

Turkmenistan has transformed itself into one of China’s biggest gas suppliers. It needs Tajikistan to help it pump gas to its client and pipelines are the main motivating factor behind Mr Berdymukhamedov’s trip to Dushanbe.

The state-owned China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) has already signed a deal with the Tajik authorities to lay part of a new pipeline that will pump gas from Turkmenistan to China. Through the Turkmen state newspaper Neutral Turkmenistan, Mr Berdymukhamedov said work on the Tajik branch of the gas pipeline to China would start shortly.

Media reported the two leaders discussed other issues during Mr Berdymukahmedov’s stay in Dushanbe, security after NATO leaves Afghanistan and regional transport issues, but energy clearly formed the basis of the meeting.

Energy, and China’s thirst for it, sets the diplomatic agenda inside Central Asia.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)

Kuwait eyes cooperation with Tajikistan

MAY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kuwait appears keen to improve diplomatic relations with Tajikistan. Media reported that an adviser to the Kuwaiti Emir met with Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon to discuss various ways of expanding cooperation. Kuwait and Tajikistan don’t have any historical connections.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)

A ‘Potatogate’ invests Tajikistan

MAY 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Would it go too far to dub it “Potatogate”? Possibly not.

Last year Tajikistan’s agriculture ministry boasted of the republic’s first-ever million tonne harvest but now Tajik media are claiming locally-grown potatoes have disappeared from the country’s bazaars and have been replaced by a more expensive variety from Pakistan.

Confused? Many Tajiks are.

Earlier in the year, the ministry declined requests from the news agency Avesta.tj for comment on the whereabouts of last year’s potato bounty but on May 5 agriculture minister Kosim Rokhbar finally relented.

Mr Rokhbar said that part of the harvest had been exported and the rest had spoiled in the country’s obsolete storage units.

In other words 2013’s million tonne potato harvest had disappeared.

And prices reflect this. The price of 1kg of potatoes has jumped 20% to 80 cents since March.

It appears that, possibly, a mix of corruption and incompetence has destroyed Tajikistan’s bumper potato harvest forcing normal people to suffer.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)

Tajikistan hosts energy talks with Turkmenistan

MAY 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon hosted talks with his Turkmen counterpart President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov for the first time in four years. Various deals and documents were signed by both sides, including the start of work on a new gas pipeline.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)

Tension rises at the Tajik-Kyrgyz border

MAY 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tension between border guards from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan once again closed the border for two days, media reported. Reports said that villages from both countries along their shared southern border blocked the road. Earlier this year a shootout between security forces killed several people.

(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)

Elites try to seize two Tajik bazaars

APRIL 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — For Western tourists bazaars in Central Asia are often quaint relics of bygone economies but for the local power elite they are strategic objects of political influence and profit.

This month, Tajik media reported efforts by state organs and affiliates of the ruling Rakhmon family to seize two large markets.

The larger of the two bazaars, just outside Dushanbe, was confiscated by a provincial court on April 21 following an investigation by anti-corruption authorities. It belonged to Muhiddin Kabiri, head of Tajikistan’s largest opposition party the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan.

A second bazaar, based in the country’s south-west Shahrtuz region, belonged to a local businessman.

Both bazaars employ over a thousand people. Moreover, Tajikistan’s bazaars are likely to grow in size and importance now the country is a member of the World Trade Organization — making them increasingly important strategic objectives.

(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)

China looks to Tajikistan for gold

APRIL 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Officials from Chinese gold miners flew to Dushanbe to discuss deals with their Tajik counterparts, media reported. China has been boosting its presence in Tajikistan significantly over the past few years. Tajikistan needs expertise to develop its gold deposits.

(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)

Opposition politician attacked in Tajikistan

APRIL 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The deputy head of Tajikistan’s main opposition party, Islamic Renaissance Party, said that 15 men beat up him and his son in the south-east region of Gorno-Badakhshan, media reported. The alleged attack on Saidumar Husaini could not be independently verified. Tajikistan has a poor freedom of speech record.

(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)