CENTRAL ASIAN UNION INSTITUTIONALIZED BUT SLOW TO DEVELOP.

Prime Ministers Utkir Sultanov of Uzbekistan, Nurlan Balgimbaev of Kazakhstan, and Apas Jumagulov of Kyrgyzstan held on December 8 in Tashkent a regular quarterly meeting in the framework of the tripartite Central Asian Union. The premiers discussed the activity of the joint Central Asian Bank and the creation of consortiums of the three countries in specific economic sectors. (Russian agencies, December 8-9)

Officially launched earlier this year, the plan to create the consortiums is moving at a snail’s pace. The already existing joint bank suffers from a shortage of capital and mutual convertibility problems. The three countries are signatory to an agreement to establish a "common economic space" as part of the Central Asian Union. Its slow start notwithstanding, the Union’s very emergence and agenda illustrate the fragmentation of the CIS into subgroups of countries.

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