Eurasia News Digest 1-15 January 2024

Russia & Central Asia

Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan Sign Protocol on Mutual Cooperation Expansion

Kazakh Minister of Trade and Integration Arman Shakkaliyev and Uzbek Minister of Investment, Industry and Trade Laziz Kudratov signed a protocol on expanding mutual cooperation at a Jan. 5 meeting in Tashkent, reported the Kazakh Trade and Integration Ministry’s press service. The ministers discussed the stages of implementation of agreements within the roadmaps signed following President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s visit to Uzbekistan in December 2022, including the one on increasing trade turnover between the two countries to $10 billion. The negotiations focused on issues of transit and transport policy, modernization of border checkpoints infrastructure, cross-border and regional cooperation, and the preparation for the fourth Forum of Interregional Cooperation between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Click here to read… [2]

Kazakh TV Operator Stops Broadcasts of Several Russian Stations

Kazakh television operator TVCOM says it has stopped broadcasting several stations launched by Russian state-run Channel One in a move to reduce the share of foreign news channels on the local market. TVCOM said the move was also due to the fact that its subscribers are "more media literate, they get news from social networks." The Central Asian country has taken several moves to rein in Russian media. In November last year, it blocked the Sputnik24 Internet portal that broadcast Russian TV channels. In August, the Russian website "Tsargrad" was blocked for what the government called "signs of extremism." Click here to read… [3]

Uzbekistan Modernizing Defense Industry

At the initiative and under the supervision of Mirziyoyev, Uzbekistan is reforming and modernizing its armed forces to fully meets modern requirements and guarantee the nation’s independence and sovereignty, the presidential press service stated. For this purpose, in January 2023 the President transferred the Defense Industry Agency to the Ministry of Defense. The Agency has since launched the production of several types of military-technical products, supplied modern equipment to troops, and updated existing models of weapons. An equipment repair plant and the central storage base for automotive equipment of the Ministry of Defense have been transferred to a cluster territory. Enterprises located in the new cluster repair and modernize weapons and military equipment, radars, optical devices, and artillery. Click here to read… [4]

Kazakhstan strives to strike water-management deal with China

Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Water Resources is engaging in negotiations with China over water usage of the region’s increasingly stressed rivers. Astana has established a 20-member working group to haggle with Chinese officials over a water-distribution framework covering approximately 20 cross-border rivers, including the Irtysh and Ili.According to a ministry statement, the two states have already agreed on a number of points as of late December. A ministry representative, Nurzhan Nurzhigitov, indicated that a water-sharing mechanism covering the Khorgos River could serve as a model for similar arrangements on other waterways. Click here to read… [5]

Four Central Asia’s nations to conduct joint military exercises with Azerbaijan in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan's Defense Minister Ruslan Zhaksylykov said that the country will host large-scale army exercises with the participation of five countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan. "This year, large-scale exercises with participation of five nations will be conducted in the territory of our country and they should be conducted at a high organizational level. It is extremely important for us to preserve friendly relations between brotherly nations and armed forces to fulfill the task of ensuring security in the Central Asian region," Ruslan Zhaksylykov said. Click here to read… [6]

USAID Provides $1.4 Million to Strengthen Central Asia’s Power Sector

On January 10th, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) handed over $1.4 million of modern energy sector management equipment and software to the Coordinating Dispatch Center (CDC) Energia in Tashkent. This cutting-edge technology will allow CDC Energia’s dispatchers to display relevant information for maintaining the region’s energy regime, the U.S. Embassy in Uzbekistan reported.This investment will enhance Central Asia’s ability to manage and monitor electricity flows to ensure the stability of the power grid and foster increased opportunities for the regional trade in electricity. It will also modernize the work of CDC Energia as a regional Systems Operator, which faces an increasing number of challenges in connection with the intensive integration of renewable energy sources and the introduction of the electricity and capacity market in Central Asia. Click here to read… [7]

Tajikistan firmly pursues the one-China policy

On January 14, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan released a statement regarding presidential elections that were held in Taiwan a day before. The statement, in particular, noted that Tajikistan firmly pursues the one-China policy and considers the Government of the People’s Republic of China to be the only legitimate and representative government of all of China. “Recognizing Taiwan as an integral part of the territory of China, Tajikistan resolutely opposes any attempts at external interference in the internal affairs of this friendly country,” reads the statement. Recall, President Emomali Rahmon in May last year paid a state visit to China and on May 18 held talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the China-Central Asia Summit and a state visit. Click here to read… [8]

Kazakhstan fulfills obligations to reduce re-export of dual-use goods to Russia, says trade minister

Kazakhstan is fulfilling its obligations to reduce the re-export of dual-use goods to Russia, Kazakhstan’s Minister of Trade and Integration Arman Shakkaliyev said, Interfax reported on January 11. “Mr. O'Sullivan (EU Special Envoy for Sanctions) was satisfied with what we have done related to the implementation of our international obligations on export control. (...) I can say that today Kazakhstan is fulfilling its obligations properly,” Shakkaliyev said at a briefing in the Senate in answer to a question about Kazakhstan's actions to stop sending sanctioned goods to Russia. Answering the question whether there are companies that bypass sanctions to supply goods to Russia, the minister made assurances that there have been no companies doing this in the past six months. Click here to read… [9]

Iran and the South Caucasus

Pashinyan proposes to establish arms control. Will Baku agree?

“Let’s sign an arms control agreement so that Armenia and Azerbaijan reach concrete agreements regarding arms and have the opportunity to control each other,” the Armenian prime minister said yesterday during a meeting of the initiative group of his Civil Pact party. Nikol Pashinyan said that he is in favor of such a proposal to Baku, and if there is a “sincere desire to achieve peace, all these issues can be solved.” According to some Armenian experts, Pashinyan’s proposal proves that “Armenia has no desire to change the imbalance of power.” Others believe that “Yerevan is trying to stop “possible military provocations by Baku”. Click here to read… [10]

Russia rejects criticism of peacekeepers in Karabakh

Russia's Foreign Ministry has angrily defended the performance of the country's peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh. In September last year the 2,000-strong peacekeeping contingent did not intervene as Baku launched a lightning offensive to retake the region, which resulted in near-complete emptying of its Armenian population. And that came at the end of a nine-month blockade of the region during which the Russian troops were of limited help in getting supplies into Karabakh and transporting Karabakhis to Armenia for medical treatment. Click here to read… [11]

Lavrov restates Moscow respect for Iran territorial integrity

The comprehensive agreement between the two countries stipulates the mutual commitment of the parties to the basic principles of relations between the two countries, including unconditional respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity, and other principles of the United Nations Charter. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, the ministers discussed and condemned the attack of the United States and Britain on Yemen. It also noted that the foreign ministers of Russia and Iran discussed the progress of the preparation of the new intergovernmental agreement and a number of operational issues of bilateral cooperation in the fields of trade, economy, transportation, logistics and other fields. During the phone call, special attention was paid to the intensification of tensions in West Asia. Click here to read… [12]

Oil Exports Across Caspian Sea Increase

Kaz Trans Oil JSC, a subsidiary of Kazakhstan’s national oil and gas company Kaz Munay Gas, said on January 12th that it has exported 3.376 million tons of oil from the Caspian port of Aktau in 2023, a 1.108-million-ton increase compared to 2022. The increase is due to the volume of crude oil shipped in the direction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, from 250,000 tons to 1.392 million tons, 5.5-fold more compared to 2022. Of that amount, 1.057 million tons of oil was shipped from the Tengiz oil field in this direction. In addition, in 2023, 1.984 million tons of oil was shipped from Aktau to Makhachkala in Russia. Click here to read… [13]

Azerbaijan accelerates Zangezur corridor construction, opening vital transport routes

Azerbaijan is continuing the construction of roads and railways passing through the Zangezur corridor, a route to connect its western regions with its exclave of Nakhchivan and serve as a route for the middle corridor extending from China to Central Asia, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus, and finally Türkiye. Following the Second Karabakh War, on Nov. 10, 2020, a declaration was signed by the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Russia agreeing to open land roads and railways between Azerbaijan and the eastern Nakhchivan region, a non-contiguous part of Azerbaijan, with a section of Armenia lying in between the two. After the war, Azerbaijan began construction of roads and railways extending from its own territories to the Armenian border. Click here to read… [14]