Richard Boucher, Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia gave his ‘The Year Ahead in South and Central Asia‘ news conference a little late this year. Boucher spoke on many topics, which I will break down below, and overall he stated that there's a ‘new sense of momentum and a new sense of energy’ in […]
No matter how advanced our human civilization becomes, creating and then depending on such things as the Internet and cell phones, life for all humans still comes down to one thing, WATER. Central Asia's historically harsh winter this past year has put tremendous strains on all parts of life in the region, from households to […]
For all you lucky readers I have a present…Press Conference reports from US State Department officials about ongoing relations with Central Asia! Calm down please. Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary, Pamela Spratlen (Photo, left) recently made diplomatic visits to Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and in each destination held a press conference. In Bishkek, she participated in what […]
On April 21st I discussed Turkmenistan-EU's growing energy supply relations, specifically in regards to the building of the Nabucco and Trans-Caspian Pipelines, and yesterday I dropped you a quick article about a recent Memo of Understanding (MoU) between Turkmenistan and India regarding oil and gas cooperation. I have been wanting to discuss India's growing role […]
We have discussed Turkmenistan's ‘opening up’ diplomatically from their isolationist and totalitarian Niyazov era on a few occasions. The nation's participation in the latest NATO Summit, EU Troika, and their warming of relations with Turkey, for instance. I am pleased to report that this ‘opening up’ seems to have some legs: 1. Current President Berdymuhamedov […]
Since the new year, there has been a serious rise in attacks against non-slavic immigrants in Russia, mainly in the city of Moscow. Human rights groups accuse nationalist extremists, with neo-Nazi sympathies, of murdering between 41-53 immigrants, most of which are from Central Asia or the Caucacus. These types of attacks have occurred in recent […]
1. US/NATO-Kazakhstan Cooperation: NATO's Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, Robert Simmons recently visited Kazakhstan to discuss the ‘Line Communication‘ project. The project involves the railway transit of non-lethal goods through the territories of Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan to Afghanistan by NATO forces. Simmons has reported that Russia and NATO exchanged letters […]
Yesterday, we discussed security progress in Afghanistan and this was led by the words of the NATO commander for the mission, Gen. Dan K. McNeill, who seemed optimistic that the Afghan military could take over security for the country by 2011. However, Gen. McNeill also stated that though "toe-to-toe' battles were on the downswing, the […]
The American Commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Dan K. McNeill, gave an optimistic appraisal of Afghanistan's stability on Sunday, stating that the Afghan army and police forces should be able to secure most of the country by 2011. McNeill argued that Afghan forces have done an effective job managing security for Kabul, although […]
On April 11, I reported on the EU Troika-Central Asian summit held in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. The post and most media outlets focused on energy relations and human rights issues between the EU representatives and all of the CA leaders present. It was reported that during the summit there was talk of a growing relationship between […]
On April 8th, Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher testified before the House's subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment. His testimony mainly focused on Kazakhstan's upcoming chairmanship of the OSCE in 2010 and how the US had put pressure on its current regime […]
Richard Weitz, a scholar for the Hudson Institute, makes the argument that China's government has either exaggerated or outright fabricated a plot by Uighur separatist to attack the upcoming Olympics. The plot in question was reported by Chinese authorities on April 10, and in their words involved 45 suspects from the Uighur dominated Xinjiang Province, […]
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