11 February News Digest
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Azerbaijan, Armenia recognize progress at talks on Karabakh
29 January
Baku and Yerevan have recognized progress at the recent talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement held by the presidents and foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Switzerland. "New as well as older principles were discussed," Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov told journalists. There are certain unsettled issues in the basic principles that were discussed at presidential level, he said. "Each of the presidents expressed his opinion in an atmosphere of mutual understanding. Naturally, this is a complex process but we should be moving forward. There is no alternative to it," Mamedyarov said. "Both presidents recognized certain dynamics in tackling the Karabakh conflict meaning that the sides are beginning to understand each other better from meeting to meeting and trying to resolve the existing problems," Armenian Foreign Minister Edvard Nalbandian said. "I want to say that currently the settlement principles are being developed. After the key principles are agreed the sides will start work on basic documents," Nalbandian said. U.S. cochairman of the OSCE Minsk Group Matthew Bryza spoke of the productiveness of the presidential meeting. There is development, dynamics has increased, and this is a positive element, he said. (Interfax)
Azeri officials talk gas at Davos
30 January
Azeri officials met with top energy executives on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland to discuss production at the Shah Deniz gas field. Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev met with Helge Lund, chief executive officer with Norwegian StatoilHydro oil and gas firm, to discuss the State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan Republic accelerating development of Phase 2 of the offshore Shah Deniz, the Azeri Press Agency reported Friday. SOCAR and StatoilHydro are the major developers of the offshore gas field in the Caspian Sea. Aliyev boasted about his country's huge energy potential and said he hoped to secure further cooperative agreements with the Norwegian and other firms whose representatives attended the economic summit in Davos. The Azeri president also met with Turkish officials to discuss bilateral economic ties. Turkey would host the planned Nabucco gas pipeline to Europe, which is expected to include Azerbaijan as a major supplier. Aliyev met with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk Wednesday to discuss a framework for energy cooperation on Nabucco as well. The $10.7 billion, 2,051-mile Nabucco pipeline would link Middle Eastern and Caspian suppliers to bring natural gas to Europe. (UPI)
Suicide Bomber Kills 21 Police Officers in Southern Afghanistan
2 February
A Taliban suicide bomber has killed at least 21 police officers in southern Afghanistan, the provincial police chief said, one of the deadliest attacks on the force in recent months. The bomber made his way into a police compound in Tirin Kot, the capital of Uruzgan Province, and blew up explosives attached to his body, Uruzgan police chief Juma Gul Hemat told Reuters. "Nineteen police have been killed and seven more wounded," he said. He had no other details. Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the attack.
Separately, the Defence Ministry said Afghan troops arrested three would be suicide bombers in another part of Uruzgan, which like most of the volatile south is an area of high Taliban activity. The United States is considering requests from commanders for up to around 25,000 more U.S. troops to be sent to Afghanistan, most of them to the south where mainly British, Canadian, and Dutch troops are struggling to contain the Taliban insurgency. Dutch and Australian troops are stationed in Uruzgan. (UPI)
Tourism in Georgia falls 80% after the War – Minister
3 February
Georgia needs “to re-brand” itself and recreate its image of safe country in order to offset falling tourism after the August war, Lasha Zhvania, the acting economy minister, told lawmakers from the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs and European integration on February 3.“Our tourism fell by 80% after the Russia’s aggression, which is a serious blow to this industry, including to hotels and service sector,” Zhvania said. “This is very important sector, capable to quickly create new jobs. So Georgia now needs re-branding, meaning to remind potential tourists that Georgia is a safe country,” he added. According to the Georgian National Investment Agency international arrivals reached “an all-time record” of 1.051 million in 2007 and the total number of international visitors, crossing national borders of Georgia, has been increased by 7% compared to 2006. (Civil Georgia)
Tbilisi Says will not Sign Non-Use of Force Treaties with Sokhumi, Tskhinvali
3 February
Georgia has no plans to sign separate agreements on non-use of force with the authorities of breakaway regions, as such move will legitimize “puppet regimes,” Georgian Foreign Minister, Grigol Vashadze, said on February 3. He also stressed that Georgia had already committed itself not to use force under the August 12 ceasefire agreement and it remained committed to this agreement. The remarks were made in response to the Russian Foreign Ministry’s February 2 statement in which it called on Tbilisi to sign binding treaties with Sokhumi and Tskhinvali on non-use of force. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko raised the issue at a meeting with the ambassadors from the EU Troika in Moscow on February 2, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. According to the Russian MFA, the ambassadors raised the issue of Russia’s plans to station military bases in the two breakaway regions. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Moscow’s plans were not in contravention of the Medvedev-Sarkozy agreements from August 12 and September 8. The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister has also expresses concern over, what he called, mobilization of Georgian troops in the vicinity of South Ossetia. The Georgian Foreign Minister said on February 3, that Georgia had unilaterally restricted deployment and movement of its armed forces in the areas adjacent to Abkhazia and South Ossetia under the memorandum of understanding signed between the Georgian Defense Ministry and the EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM). “Instead of voicing absurd requirements, the Russian Federation would better de-occupy our territories, withdraw its occupying forces and stop construction of military bases [in the breakaway regions],” Grigol Vashadze said. (Civil Georgia)
Kazakhstan Devalues Tenge 18%
4 February
Kazakhstan’s central bank devalued the tenge by 18 percent, joining Russia, Ukraine and Belarus in abandoning attempts to prop up exchange rates as currency reserves dwindle and the economy staggers. Central Asia’s largest energy producer will keep its currency at about 150 tenge to the dollar, the Almaty-based National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan said in a statement. The central bank is letting the tenge weaken for the first time since it started managing the currency in 2007, after draining $3.5 billion, or 16 percent, of its foreign-exchange reserves. Two decades after the Soviet Union’s collapse, Kazakhstan’s economic growth is slowing to 1 percent from 10 percent and the nation’s four biggest banks have been seized by the government as part of an emergency program costing the equivalent to 20 percent of gross domestic product. Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has been president since communism ended, is looking to Moscow to take over its biggest bank, just as Russia struggles to arrest a 35 percent devaluation and Ukraine battles a 47 percent drop. “The situation is so similar to Russia, being highly dependent on oil prices and the banking sector being weak due to large foreign debt and the collapse of the housing market,” said Gaelle Blanchard, an emerging-market analyst at Societe Generale SA in London, who expects the tenge to fall to 170 per dollar. The devaluation will make it harder for banks to repay their $40 billion of foreign debt, of which $19 billion is due this year, said Nordea Bank AB, the Nordic region’s biggest bank. Stocks rallied 14 percent, the most in three months, led by commodity exporters. (Bloomberg)
Georgian OSCE Envoy Quits, Could Join Opposition
4 February
Georgia's ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has resigned in what Georgian media said was likely to be a defection to opposition ranks. Viktor Dolidze's resignation came amid a push by the Greek OSCE chair to salvage its monitoring mission in Georgia from a dispute between Moscow and the West over its mandate in the wake of Georgia's five-day war with Russia last year. But Georgian media reports suggested the decision was linked to internal politics and an opposition push to unseat President Mikheil Saakashvili. Dolidze told Georgian television he had quit the Vienna-based European rights and security body and would explain why on his return to Tbilisi next week. He is seen as close to Irakly Alasania, Georgia's popular former ambassador to the United Nations, who quit after the war and called on Saakashvili to stand down. Georgian media reports say Dolidze is likely to join forces with Alasania, who has pledged to enter the opposition and is seen as a potential challenger to Saakashvili.
Deputy Foreign Minister Giga Bokeria told Reuters: "I can confirm that our ambassador to the OSCE has resigned. I do not wish to elaborate on the reasons for his resignation." The president's opponents accuse him of walking into a war Georgia could not possibly win, when he launched an assault on breakaway South Ossetia after months of skirmishes and Russia responded with a devastating counterstrike. (Reuters)
Sokhumi Says it Wants Separate UN Mission
5 February
UN should have a separate mission in Abkhazia if its observers want to stay in the region, Sergey Shamba, the foreign minister of breakaway Abkhazia, said. He said on February 4 that although Sokhumi was interested in the mission’s continued presence, the mission should be renamed and called “UN observer mission in Abkhazia,” instead of “in Georgia.” In October, the UN Security Council agreed on technical four-month extension of UN mission’s mandate, till February 15. The text of resolution does not even mention the mission’s official name – UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG); instead it was referred as “UN mission.” “If our proposals are accepted, the activities of the UN Mission in Abkhazia will continue. If they try to impose on us some projects, which are against our interests, we will simply not accept them, and accordingly, there will be no mission here and no prolongation of their mandate,” Apsnipress news agency reported quoting Sergey Shamba. Officials in Tbilisi say that Russia may also veto extension of UN observers’ presence in Georgia at the Security Council after it had already blocked extension of OSCE mission’s mandate. Like in case of OSCE mission, which among other things was dealing with the South Ossetian conflict, Russia is also pushing for having a separate, independent UN mission in Abkhazia, which will not be linked with the mission’s headquarters in Tbilisi. Speaking after meeting in Sokhumi with special envoys from UN, EU and OSCE – who are co-mediators at the Geneva talks, Shamba also said that Sokhumi was strongly against of letting EU monitors inside the breakaway region, citing that their mandate was covering Georgia and not Abkhazia.“There were times, when we trusted the European Union more than UN, but now the EU’s position is absolutely unacceptable for us. The statements by EU representatives that Abkhazia will never be recognized and that Russia should revoke its recognition decision do not trigger any hope for cooperation. This will not lead to anything constructive,” Shamba said. He, however, also said, that Sokhumi would not be against if the EU observers participated in the quadripartite meetings in the village of Chuburkhinji of the Gali district, if such meetings were resumed. No such meetings have been held since November 2006. (Civil Georgia)
Tajikistan to transit NATO supplies to Afghanistan
6 February
U.S. Ambassador to Tajikistan Tracey Ann Jacobson has said after a meeting with President Emomali Rahmon that the Tajik leader "confirmed his readiness to offer the country's airspace for nonmilitary NATO supplies bound for Afghanistan." The announcement comes after Kyrgyz officials announced they would order the closure of a U.S. air base at Manas that sends supplies and personnel to Afghanistan.
Jacobson also said that a bridge on the Panj River on the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan would soon function 24 hours a day. The bridge -- in the Panj district of Khatlon Province -- was funded by the United States at a cost of some $30 million. Jacobson said the Tajik government proposed building another bridge in the Farkhor district of Khatlon Province that also borders Afghanistan. She added that the Tajik and U.S. militaries will have two six-week joint training sessions this year for special forces in the Regar district bordering Uzbekistan. (RFE/RL)
Turkmenistan, Europe plan Nabucco talks
6 February
The Nabucco gas pipeline to Europe is at the top of the agenda for a Feb. 13 meeting in Turkmenistan by the president of the European Council. Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov was invited to attend the meeting in Ashgabat next Friday. Mirek Topolanek, the Czech premier and head of the European Council, said he would discuss Turkmenistan's cooperation in the $10.7 billion project, RIA Novosti reported Friday. The planned 2,051-mile artery would carry natural gas from potential suppliers in Central Asia and the Middle East to travel through Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria, bypassing Russia and Ukraine. Construction has been tentatively scheduled to begin in 2010.
Interested parties to the project, which is viewed as a partial solution to Europe's energy diversity woes, expressed their commitment for the project during a Jan. 28 meeting in Budapest, Hungary.
A declaration signed in Budapest offered support for the conference in Turkmenistan, a potential supplier, and a later summit in Bulgaria, a potential host. The Czech presidency of the European Union agreed to organize a May 7 conference and put an intergovernmental agreement on the agenda for a later conference in Turkey, which would host a major leg of Nabucco. (UPI)
Ingush security agencies looking for three men planning terror attack
6 February
Ingush security agencies are looking for three suicide bombers who have arrived in the republic to commit a major terrorist attack, Ingush President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov said at a conference with local law enforcement and security agencies in Magas on Friday, which was shown on local television. "We have information that two young men and a woman have arrived in Ingushetia and that they are suicide bombers planning a terrorist attack," Yevkurov said. Photos of these people will be shown on local television and will be posted at schools, in mosques, and at markets, he said. "Terrorists have no ethnic background, and therefore I am not saying who they are. Those who guide them are also people without kith or kin, who are hiding behind some radio nicknames," he said. "But there is one more thing: These people have found shelter in our homes. They are living somewhere with our relatives, who don't understand that, by giving refuge to such people, they may be harmed themselves and harm others," he said. (Interfax)
Iran is building four more satellites, report says
8 February
Iran is building four more satellites, the telecommunications minister was quoted as saying, after the Islamic republic put its first domestically produced satellite into orbit last week. Iran launched a research and telecom satellite, called Omid, on February 3, a step that worried Western powers who fear Tehran is seeking to build a nuclear bomb and missile delivery systems. Iran insists its nuclear work is to generate electricity and said the satellite launch was for peaceful purposes. The long-range ballistic technology used to put satellites into orbit could also be used for launching warheads. "There are now four other satellites being manufactured by Iranian experts," Telecommunications Minister Mohammad Soleimani was quoted by Mehr News Agency as saying, without saying when they might be launched."Details about these four satellites will be announced subsequent to their final preparation," he said adding that, following the launch of Omid, Iran "will try to raise the weight and altitude of the satellites to be launched." He also said Omid, which means "hope" in Persian, was performing its mission successfully. State media had earlier said Omid would return to Earth with data after orbiting for one to three months. (Reuters)
Kazakh minister promises “drastic measures” to breakers of water accords
9 February
Kazakh Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sauat Mynbayev has declared water problems with neighbors. "We have a rather serious problem with our southern neighbors. Things are bad as never before in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. We work side by side but may apply certain drastic measures in order to preserve our market. Such measures may have consequences for our neighbors," he said at an intercom government conference in Astana on Monday. Vice-premiers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan agreed in Almaty on October 18, 2008, that they would coordinate the use of common water and hydropower resources in winter and spring of 2008/2009. The peculiar pattern of the water and hydropower network of Central Asia makes regional countries coordinate the amount of taken and released water. For instance, the amount of electricity produced by the Toktagul hydropower plant is significant for the amount of water dumped from the Toktagul dam lake. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev offered his neighbors in 2003 to form a water and hydropower consortium in order to ensure equal distribution and mutually beneficial use of water resources, yet no steps to that effect have been taken. (Interfax)
Electricity rationing tightened in Tajikistan
10 February
New power rationing in the Tajik capital has imposed a limit on residents of 11 hours of electricity per day, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reports. Some regions of the country recently had their energy ration eliminated and now have no electricity at all. Uzbekistan stopped transporting Turkmen electricity to Tajikistan in December in a move that the Tajik side claims is a breach of contractual obligations. The Uzbek move prompted Tajik electricity distributor Barqi Tojik-main to ask the government to impose restrictions.
Dushanbe residents currently have power from 5:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and again between 4:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. Dushanbe city spokesman Shavkat Saidov told RFE/RL that the restrictions apply to all but state-owned buildings. (RFE/RL)
Kazakhstan to cut executive pay as crises bites
10 February
Kazakhstan's prime minister has said executives at state-run firms and banks should not be paid more than him, capping their salaries to try to prevent social unrest in his Central Asian state. Prime Minister Karim Masimov set his monthly wage as the sector benchmark, hoping to address growing public concerns over rising unemployment and falling incomes in the oil-producing country's worst economic crisis in a decade.
"We know that even in the leading developed countries executive pay has come under intense scrutiny," Masimov told members of his government. "I think we should not ignore this issue. I suggest that...chief executives [at state companies] should not be paid more than the prime minister." Masimov wrote in his blog, primeminister.government.kz, that his monthly pay was about 700,000 tenges ($4,700). This is a modest sum compared to what executives earn at some of the former Soviet republic's big oil and mining companies, but it is nearly 12 times the average monthly wage. His decision is likely to be implemented immediately, because state companies follow government orders. It follows moves in other countries to limit bonuses and salaries in sectors where a culture of large bonuses and high pay is held partly responsible for the financial crisis. Kazakhstan has been hard hit by the global financial crisis, which has brought economic expansion to a virtual standstill and left the central bank trying to prop up the tenge.
The government sees growth in 2009 of around 2 percent, but the International Monetary Fund projects only a 1 percent expansion. This compares with 3.1 percent growth in 2008 and nearly 9 percent in 2007.
Although President Nursultan Nazarbaev has been accused in the West of showing little commitment to democracy, he has long been popular in Kazakhstan, Central Asia's biggest economy. But the tough economic times have rekindled memories of the chaotic 1990s when the collapse of the Soviet Union was followed by years of high inflation, unemployment, and crime. Criticism of the president remains taboo in Kazakhstan but many Kazakhs fear salaries will be eroded and some have accused the government of mishandling the crisis, although there have been no signs of public unrest. "Respect, Karim Kazhimkanovich!" one visitor wrote on Masimov's blog page. (Reuters)
Kyrgyz Parliament Postpones Debate On U.S. Air Base
11 February
The opposition Social Democratic Party says the parliamentary discussion on the cancellation of Kyrgyzstan's agreement with the United States on use of the air base at Manas Airport will not take place this week. The debate on a draft law canceling the agreement on U.S. use of the Manas air base was postponed because Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Kadyrbek Sarbaev could not attend, the Kyrgyz parliament's press service reported. Meanwhile, Communist Party leader Iskhak Masaliev told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service that Kyrgyzstan needs to cancel bilateral agreements with some 11 countries because the Manas air base is shared with other members of the international antiterrorist coalition. So far, only one parliament committee has voted to cancel the bilateral U.S.-Kyrgyz agreement on the air base, which is just outside of Bishkek and has been used by the U.S.-led coalition for operations in Afghanistan since 2001. (RFE/RL)
Iran: Change Under Obama will be “happy news”
11 February
A change in U.S. foreign policy under President Barack Obama would be "happy news," the foreign minister of arch-foe Iran has said."We look positively on the slogan that Obama raised in the elections. The world has really changed," Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki said through an Arabic interpreter at a news conference during a visit to neighbouring Iraq. "If the American administration wants to keep up with the changes, this will be happy news." Mottaki's remarks were the latest in a series of recent comments from Iranian leaders hinting at prospects of a thaw with a country that has been an arch enemy for nearly 30 years. "We think these changes will provide good opportunities for the American administration in its relations with the countries of the world," Mottaki added. "As diplomats, we are destined to be optimistic, and we wish this would come true." Obama has said he is willing to start talks with Iran, which the United States and its Western allies accuse of supporting terrorism, meddling in Iraq and seeking nuclear weapons, all charges Tehran denies. On February 10, President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said Iran was ready to hold talks "in a fair atmosphere with mutual respect." (Reuters)
Russia says may offer aircraft for afghan transit
11 February
Russia could offer its military aircraft to help supply NATO-led soldiers fighting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said. The Kremlin views Afghanistan as an area where Russian interests coincide with those of the United States, despite fierce disagreements on other issues.
When asked about ways to improve ties with the United States under new President Barack Obama, Lavrov said Russia was ready for close and wide cooperation on Afghanistan."Nonmilitary transit has already been granted as part of our agreements with NATO and the United States very recently received our agreement...for delivery of their cargoes for the needs of the international forces," Lavrov said.
"Additional steps are also possible," Lavrov said at a news briefing with European Union foreign policy chiefs in Moscow. "I would remind you that in April and May of last year we discussed with our NATO colleagues an agreement on the use of Russian military transport aviation for the needs of the international forces. There could be other agreements too." "As President [Dmitry] Medvedev confirmed again recently, we are ready for the very closest and very widest cooperation on Afghanistan," Lavrov said. Discussions between Russia and NATO on transit to Afghanistan, and other issues, were suspended by the alliance in response to Moscow's war with Georgia last year. Dialogue has been restarted in the past few weeks.
The NATO-led force in Afghanistan is seeking alternative supply routes after convoys of trucks passing through Pakistan were attacked by militants. The United States uses an airbase in ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan to help supply its operations in nearby Afghanistan, but the Kyrgyz government said last week it was closing the base.Moscow, which has been suspicious of the U.S. military presence near its borders, has denied any link between the closure of the base and Russia's decision to give Kyrgyzstan a $2 billion loan package. (Reuters)
