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During the April 2008 NATO Summit, an interesting new turn took place in the context of NATO’s post-Soviet relations. It was agreed that a railroad line would be created to transport the cargo from Europe through the territory of some CIS countries, including Russia, toward Afghanistan. Soon after this event, in June, an informal CIS summit took place in St. Petersburg, in which Uzbek President Islam Karimov initiated the proposal to merge the CSTO and EurAsEc, perhaps, to promote the counterbalance to NATO. But did these gestures provide a solution to Uzbekistan’s foreign policy woes?

Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliev has announced a doubling of the reserves of both oil and gas in his country’s Caspian offshore.  New finds in as many of five fields to be developed contain perhaps 50 trillion cubic feet of gas, such as to require a new gas export pipeline.  An executive of the national oil company SOCAR has hinted that gas from Turkmenistan could be included, starting even in the near term with small quantities. The French company And although Gazprom has lately offered to buy Azerbaijani gas at near-market prices, probably for re-export to Europe via its planned South Stream pipeline, Azerbaijan has not shown much interest, instead declaring that it will feed the first contracted gas into the rival Nabucco pipeline destined for Bulgaria and beyond.

The military conflict in Afghanistan remains stalemated. Coalition forces continue to win conventional battles against the Taliban insurgents, but the guerrillas remain sufficiently robust to prevent the Afghan government from establishing control over much of the country, or NATO governments from envisaging a near-term exit from the Afghan War. Recent developments in Pakistan threaten to make matters even worse.