regional news
Kazakhstan Regional News Roundup - September 8, 2008
Central Asia: Russia and United States intensify energy competition
(EurasiaNet) - A three-sided diplomatic scrum is intensifying in Central Asia, as US, Russian and Chinese officials are stepping up efforts to wring energy-export deals from regional leaders.
Nabucco backers remain composed
(Financial Times) - The backers of the Nabucco pipeline, an ambitious 3,300km scheme to ship gas from central Asia to Europe, remain confident the project is on track, in spite of the conflict between Russia and Georgia.
Cheney expresses US interest in Caspian region
(Oil and Gas Journal) - US Vice-President Dick Cheney met with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and later said that the US has a “deep and abiding interest” in the Caspian region’s stability and security.
Kazakhstan Regional News Roundup - September 5, 2008
EU’s Piebalgs seeks political push for Nabucco gas
(RFE/RL) - The European Union must reduce its dependence on Russian energy supplies by accelerating the planned Nabucco pipeline to bring gas from central Asia, says the EU’s energy chief.
Caspian leaders to meet over oil-rich sea status in October or November
(RIA Novosti) - The countries have so far failed to agree on how to divide the seabed.
Kazakhstan Regional News Roundup - September 4, 2008
Russia and the Shanghai cooperation: Lonely road from Bishkek to Dushanbe
(EurasiaNet) - Up through the August 2007 SCO summit in Bishkek, Putin had good reason to be pleased with the SCO, as the SCO appeared to be a useful mechanism for advancing Moscow’s priorities.
Kazakhstan Regional News Roundup - September 3, 2008
Putin clinches deal for Uzbek pipeline
(The Moscow Times) - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday secured agreement from Uzbekistan to start building a new gas pipeline to Russia in a deal that bolsters Moscow’s sway over Central Asian energy supplies.
The commonwealth of weak states
(EurasiaNet) - With the exception of Ukraine and, of course, the Baltic states, none of the republics of the former Soviet Union has vigorously protested Russia’s recent aggression in Georgia and its subsequent recognition of the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Energy a casualty of Georgia conflict
(Platts) - Various strategic conclusions can be drawn from the August conflict in Georgia, each with implications for regional - indeed global - energy security.
Legal status of Caspian Sea to be discussed at summit in Baku (Kazakhstan Today)
Legal status of Caspian Sea to be discussed at summit in Baku
(Kazakhstan Today) - Legal status of the Caspian Sea will be discussed at the summit in Baku on September 5-6. The Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan, Serik Primbetov, informed, the agency reports referring to Trend information agency.
Kazakhstan Regional News Roundup - September 2, 2008
Central Asia watches warily
(IHT) - Central Asian leaders are worried that they might eventually find themselves having to choose sides between Russia and the West - a choice all of them have tried hard to avoid.
Bulgaria pushes Nabucco pipeline
(BusinessWeek) - The Russia-Georgia conflict adds new impetus to an alternative route for Caspian gas that connects Turkey to Austria via Bulgaria.
China, Turkmenistan agree to boost planned gas sales
(Reuters) - Turkmenistan will sell 40 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas a year to China through a planned pipeline instead of the previously agreed 30 bcm.
Central Asian leaders balk at opening Pandora’s box of separatism
(RFE/RL) - The summit’s final resolution lauded “Russia’s efforts to normalize the situation in South Caucasus,” but was notably silent on the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
In the eye of the storm
(Transitions Online) - The Caucasus region was once seen as a transit hub for Caspian and Central Asian fuel supplies. That may change.
Kazakhstan Regional News Roundup - August 29, 2008
Ties between Central and South Asia facing hiccups: Expert
(ANI) - Links between Central Asia and South Asia stand a chance of improving only if the historical linkages of the past are given their due importance and applied in the modern context.
Asian alliance rebuffs Russian plea for support
(AP) - China and several Central Asian nations rebuffed Russia’s hopes of international support for its actions in Georgia, issuing a statement Thursday denouncing the use of force and calling for the respect of every country’s territorial integrity.
Kazakhstan Regional News Roundup - August 28, 2008
U.S. energy interests and the Caspian: The free ride is over
(World Politics Review) - While control over routes for the export of oil and gas to Western markets was clearly not the primary cause of the recent hostilities between Moscow and Tbilisi, the vital role of the Caucasus as an energy transit route nevertheless cannot be ignored in the context of Russia’s increasingly tense relationship with the United States and its European allies.
Kazakhstan Regional News Roundup - August 27, 2008
Russia recognizes breakaway Georgian regions
(AP) - Russia formally recognized the breakaway Georgian territories at the heart of its war with Georgia on Tuesday, drawing immediate condemnation from the West.
Central Asian summit may discuss South Ossetia - China (Reuters)
BTC pipeline resumes operations
(Oil and Gas Journal) - Some 1.7 million bbl of Azeri crude were loaded aboard two tankers at Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, the first transfer since the closure of the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline on Aug.5 due to an explosion and fire.
Kazakhstan Regional Roundup - August 26, 2008
Caspian Basin: Russia uses its Georgia position to enhance its energy leverage
(EurasiaNet) - The contest over Caspian Basin energy finds itself at a potentially decisive point as Russia’s incursion into Georgia has caused disruptions in the only export routes for oil and natural gas that are not under Moscow’s control.
Azeri oil will flow via Odessa-Brody at the year-end
(Azeri Press Agency) - Russia’s reverse transportation of oil southward to Odessa may be terminated this year, Ukrainian media reports said.
