Latest Articles about Central Asia
KAZAKHSTAN OPENS MILITARY LANGUAGE INSTITUTE
Kazakhstan has taken a small, but significant step towards preparing more of its military personnel to receive education and training in Western countries by opening a new military language institute in Almaty. In many ways this development serves to highlight the extent of the uphill... MORE
NAZARBAYEV EXPECTED TO EASILY WIN ANOTHER TERM
On September 7 the lower house of Kazakhstan's parliament put an end to months of speculation and scheduled presidential elections for December 4. Members of parliament and the Constitutional Court had argued over whether elections should be held in December 2005 or December 2006. The... MORE
KULOV OPTIMISTIC ON EFFORTS TO DELINATE DIVISION OF POWERS BETWEEN PRESIDENT AND PRIME MINISTER
Latent conflicts between the president's and prime minister's supporters in the Kyrgyz parliament became public during the September 12 debates on the draft legislation "On the Government Structure." Deputy Prime Ministers Daniyar Usenov and Adakhan Modumarov voted against Prime Minister Felix Kulov's version of the... MORE
IMPLICATIONS OF CHINA’S TAKEOVER OF PETROKAZAKHSZTAN
The state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation's (CNPC) more-than-friendly takeover of the PetroKazakhstan company would, if consummated, signify yet another setback to U.S. and European energy interests in Central Asia. The deal, first announced on August 22, would mark a setback of a novel type. Until... MORE
ASTANA MAY SACRIFICE NATIONAL INTERESTS TO SATISFY CHINA OIL DEAL
When the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) agreed to pay $4.18 billion to buy the Canadian-listed PetroKazakhstan oil company, the deal triggered a flood of controversial comments in Kazakhstan. What seemed to be the biggest Chinese takeover deal ever made in Kazakhstan instead left a... MORE
TURKMENISTAN PULLS BACK FROM CIS
Turkmenistan's President Saparmurat Niyazov announced on September 1 that his country would downgrade its links with the Commonwealth of Independent States. Arguing on the basis of his avowed and UN-approved neutral status, Niyazov advanced the idea of a looser associate CIS membership, eschewing the participation... MORE
AS WINTER APPROACHES, KYRGYZSTAN FACES TOUGH CHOICES IN ITS ENERGY SECTOR
Following this summer's Andijan refugee crisis, when the Kyrgyz government transferred 440 Uzbek citizens to a third country to satisfy its obligations as a UN member, official Tashkent canceled a bilateral agreement on supplying 350 million cubic meters of natural gas to Kyrgyzstan. Having a... MORE
ANTICLIMACTIC END TO KYRGYZ REVOLUTION
Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's August 14 inauguration demonstrated that Western expectations and Russian fears of a democratic revolution in Kyrgyzstan were equally misplaced. By the same token, the inauguration and its immediate aftermath highlighted the daunting cultural distance to democracy that Kyrgyzstan (and some of... MORE
KAZAKHSTAN’S TRANS-CASPIAN OIL EXPORT PLANS AND ITS COMPETITORS
Interviewed in the current issue of the Caspian Investor monthly, Kazakhstan's Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Vladimir Shkolnik confirms that negotiations are advancing toward an agreement on the transportation of oil from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan and through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (Turkey) pipeline. At the same time,... MORE
KAZAKHSTAN QUESTIONS U.S. MILITARY ROLE IN CENTRAL ASIA
Kazakhstan's delicate foreign policy, predicated upon balancing its relations among China, Russia, and the United States, has come under increased pressure both from its involvement in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the growing tendency within the region to question the long-term strategic role of... MORE