In advance of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea meeting in Almaty on April 28, Uzbekistan’s President, Islam Karimov, has been busy convincing Turkmenistan’s President, Gurbangly Berdymukhamedov, to ally with the downstream Central Asian states against the upstream ones. The Syr Darya and Amu Darya are the only sources for water in the […]
The Iranian and Kazakh presidents met Monday in the Kazakh capital of Astana and signed a series of mutually beneficial deals that will also pay dividends to other countries. President Nazarbayev said he supports Iran’s right to have nuclear energy but believed it should be developed in a transparent way so as to not worry […]
The stronger downstream countries are teaming up to block hydropower projects in their much poorer neighbors ahead of an upcoming conference. This is truly unfortunate as Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are experiencing political and economic unrest. To make matters worse, Uzbekistan is limiting shipments of gas to Tajikistan over outstanding debt. In a terrible catch-22, Tajikistan […]
The Iranian president is set to meet with his Kazakh counterpart tomorrow to discuss fishing rights in the Caspian Sea and regional security. In what I gather to be a closely related event, in recent weeks, the Kazakhs have offered to host, according to the Wall Street Journal, “the international “nuclear fuel bank” where nations […]
News has broke that the US has signed a deal with Uzbekistan for allowing the transit of non-lethal material through the country and into Afghanistan, with which it shares a border. Interestingly, Kyrgyzstan is now dropping hints that the US can remain at the Manas air base. However, with the increasing political turmoil there, including […]
Jobs and wages are being cut at state companies in Kazakhstan. Until now, economic troubles had been more or less confined to the private sector, but now the public sector must cut costs drastically. In the Osh region of Kyrgyzstan, official unemployment has nearly doubled, from 10,000 a year ago to 17,500 now. In addition, […]
Eurasian Daily Moniter reports that the recent meeting between the leaders of Russia and Turkmenistan is part of Russia’s broader policy of exploiting disagreements over energy within the EU states. There are large discrepancies in the amount of gas recieved from Russia within the EU and a consummate lack of agreement as to how to […]
I told you earlier that I would keep you up to date on all Shanghai Cooperation Organization issues and happenings here, but I went on vacation and David Kampf at FPA’s Rising Powers beat me too it. Here’s his blog piece about a Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit on Afghanistan. For the first time a US official […]
On March 25, Turkmen President Gurbankuly Berdymuhammedov traveled to Moscow to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and discuss a series of issues. The two countries have generally good relations as Russia is Turkmenistan’s biggest trading partner. They discussed electricity, transportation, natural gas, agriculture, and communication systems. The most important deal to come out of […]
The Kazakh Prime Minister has compared the economic situation to wartime and told his cabinet that the “government will be ruling the economy manually”. He warned that “wartime regulations” may be a necessary step. Obviously, this is a bad sign. Four of the sixteen laid-off oil workers who are on a hunger strike have been […]
The Kazakh government may not be able to continue the bailout of its biggest domestic bank, BTA, if any of its creditors ask for early repayment. The bank holds $12 million in foreign debt and will likely need to restructure it. So far, $2 billion in bailout funds has been injected into BTA In Uzbekistan, […]
The US may be allowed to return to the Uzbek base of Karshi-Khanabad (K2) soon. They were evicted in 2005 after the massacre in Andijon in May and consequent international criticism. In recent weeks, Washington has spoken with Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan about the possibility of a base, even after arguing that a base was not […]
The people of Central Asia are celebrating the Persian New Year, Narouz, marked on the vernal equinox each year. The holiday is celebrated from India to China to parts of Europe, among the Turkic, Iranian and Kurdish peoples, along with a few others. Under the Soviet Union, the holiday was officially banned as it was […]
As this blog has been reporting, some countries have a lot of water and other countries do not have enough. In a more perfect world, normal forces of supply and demand would render the former a producer and the latter a consumer. But as arguably the most valuable resource in the world, water is an […]
Good news for both states as building begins for a railroad to carry non-lethal NATO supplies through Russia to Afghanistan. Radio Liberty reports that “The cost of building the 146-kilometer link is estimated at $131 million.” Let’s hope the building continues at a reasonable pace and leads to development on both sides of the border. Tajikistan’s […]