Kyrgyzstan Foreign Ministry

23 Apr 2024
Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyzstan Life & Culture, Kyrgyzstan International Affairs, Kyrgyzstan Business & Economy

Kyrgyzstan and US Review Political, Security and Economic Cooperation

On April 22 Bishkek hosted Annual Bilateral Consultations led by the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic Aibek Moldogaziev and U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs John Mark Pommersheim.

Referencing the historic C5+1 Summit held on September 22, 2023 in New York, the parties commended its positive impact on regional cooperation and the U.S.-Kyrgyzstan commitment to enhancing U.S.-Central Asia regional partnership.

Deputy Foreign Minister Moldogaziev and Deputy Assistant Secretary Pommersheim reaffirmed the importance of annual bilateral consultations in advancing shared priorities, including political and security cooperation, economic partnership and support for civil society and rule of law.

Under security cooperation, discussions focused on counterterrorism, border protection, global health security, and continued defense cooperation, with the United States reiterating its unwavering support for Kyrgyzstan’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence.

Both sides emphasized their commitment to grow and diversify the Kyrgyz economy, increase U.S. private sector investment, improve regional connectivity and trade, expand agricultural cooperation, and advance partnership on critical minerals and the green economy. Collaboration on the continued commitment to addressing social issues included furthering economic opportunities for persons with disabilities, and measures to protect public health.

Looking towards the realization of creating a resilient, prosperous, and secure Kyrgyzstan, delegates listed media freedom, a strong civil society, respect for human rights -including women’s rights- stronger protection against gender-based violence, judicial independence, and combating corruption, as essential.

The parties also discussed the importance of continuing to increase cooperation through educational and English language programmes, emphasizing the important role of direct personal interaction in the countries’ bilateral relationship.

Times of Central Asia

Times of Central Asia

@Yuz.uz

23 Apr 2024
Central Asia, Uzbekistan, Business & Economy, Uzbekistan Business & Economy, Uzbekistan International Affairs

China Remains Uzbekistan’s Top Trade Partner

In the first three months of 2024, the value of bilateral trade between China and Uzbekistan reached $2.1 billion. During this period, Uzbekistan’s exports to China totaled $349.4 million, whilst imports from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) reached $1.7 billion. This trade flow reflects a significant surplus in the PRC’s trade balance, indicating a steady demand for Chinese goods.

According to the Uzbek statistics agency, trade with China accounts for 21.5% of the country’s total foreign trade. The number of companies with Chinese investments is steadily growing in Uzbekistan – at the beginning of April, there were 2,501 of them, up 7% compared to the end of last year.

At a meeting of the leaders of Uzbekistan and China in Beijing in late January, 2024, Presidents Mirziyoyev and Xi agreed to prepare programs of cooperation in infrastructure development, industrial cooperation, technology transfer in agriculture, and green energy. Last year, Chinese companies commissioned two solar power plants in Uzbekistan with a capacity of 1,000 MW. Mirziyoyev and Xi said bilateral trade turnover between the countries could reach $20 billion annually.

The two sides see great potential in the construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan trunk-line railroad. According to various estimates, this multi-modal corridor will reduce the distance of cargo delivery to Europe from China by 900 kilometers, saving 7-8 days of transit time.

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Image: president.kg

23 Apr 2024
Central Asia, Home, Tajikistan International Affairs, International Affairs, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyzstan International Affairs, Business & Economy, Tajikistan Features, Features, Kyrgyzstan Features

Britain’s Cameron to Central Asia: Work with Us

Britain’s foreign secretary is in Central Asia this week, seeking deeper ties with a part of the world seen as increasingly vital to international security, energy flows and efforts to combat climate change. The trip, which David Cameron described as overdue, followed criticism that Britain had neglected what the envoy’s own office describes as a “pivotal region of the world.”

Cameron´s visit comes months after a British parliamentary committee report said there was a perceived “lack of seriousness” in Britain’s engagement with Central Asia. The committee said Russia and China were courting the region, while Britain was “a leading enabler for corrupt Central Asian elites and a key node for capital flight out of the region.”

Cameron spent the first day of his trip in Tajikistan, meeting President Emomali Rahmon in Dushanbe and visiting the Nurek hydropower project, which supplies about 70% of the country’s electricity. He will also visit Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

“These countries aren’t often talked about in the U.K., so you might ask why,” Cameron said on Monday. “Well, these countries are sandwiched between China, Russia, Afghanistan and Iran. They’re making a choice of who to work with, and in a more competitive and contested world, if you want to protect and promote British interests, you need to get out there and compete.”

Britain intends to provide investment funds for small businesses as well as “green” projects that can mitigate the effects of climate change, Cameron said. Without providing specifics, he told Tajik television that he and Rahmon discussed security and “all the difficulties and conflicts in the region.”

The Islamic State group, which is said in some quarters to have increasingly recruited Central Asians into its ranks, claimed responsibility for the killing of more than 140 people by gunmen who attacked the Crocus City Hall in Moscow on March 22. Several Tajik migrants are among the detained suspects.

Cameron will “advance discussions on sanctions circumvention, human rights and reform,” his office said.

Britain is a staunch supporter of Ukraine in its war against Russia, which has had success in dodging Western sanctions, partly by trading with Europe via Central Asia. For example, British firms´ exports to Kyrgyzstan have soared by over 1,100%, Sky News reported.

“Major European economies are quietly continuing their economic cooperation with Moscow by circumventing sanctions to take advantage of the vacated market,” says a commentary in the Center for European Policy Analysis, which is based in Washington. “And they’re doing it by finding partners in the South Caucasus and Central Asia.”

Cameron praised the Nurek Dam as an example of the kind of “great schemes” that can help reduce the use of coal-fired power plants and drive down carbon emissions by providing clean energy from Central Asia to South Asia under the CASA-1000 project.

On the second leg of his tour, Cameron arrived in Kyrgyzstan later on April 22, where he met with President Sadyr Japarov. They exchanged views on the prospects for Kyrgyz-British cooperation in the political, trade, economic, investment, energy, and transport areas, the Kyrgyz president’s press service reported. They also discussed expanding interaction between the two countries on issues of education and seasonal labor migration.

Cameron also held netiations with Foreign Minister, Jeenbek Kulubaev, who informed his British counterpart about potential areas of cooperation, including the joint development of rare earth elements, and the transition to green energy.

According to a report from Kyrgyzstan’s Foreign Ministry, Cameron announced the UK’s interest in expanding partnerships with the countries of Central Asia and Kyrgyzstan, in particular. The British Foreign Secretary also announced his country’s readiness to help support small and medium-sized businesses in the Central Asian region by creating a special fund with an authorized capital of 19 million pounds.

In an interview, Cameron commented about concerns over the deteriorating state of press freedom and the shrinking civic space in Kyrgyzstan, saying that he raised these issues in his meeting with President Japarov. “We talked about the importance of voluntary bodies, charities, nongovernmental organizations, civil society organizations,” he stated.

Cameron is the first British foreign secretary to visit Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan and the first to Uzbekistan since 1997, according to his office. Other Western leaders are also paying more attention to Central Asia. French President Emmanuel Macron visited the region in November, and U.S. President Joe Biden met the presidents of the Central Asian countries in New York in September.

Britain isn’t the only Western government engaging with Central Asia this week. After hosting Cameron, Tajikistan’s Rahmon left for Rome ahead of a meeting on Tuesday with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy.

 

Times of Central Asia

Times of Central Asia

@hronikatm.com

23 Apr 2024
Central Asia, Uzbekistan Environment, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, International Affairs, Turkmenistan Local Politics, Uzbekistan Local Politics

Turkmen Dissidents Mark Anniversary of Deadly Storm With Government Protest

On April 27 activists from the Warsaw Post-Soviet Dissident Alliance will hold a protest in Warsaw, Poland, against the Turkmen government. The event is being organized in memory of the dozens of victims of the 2020 windstorm in the city of Turkmenabat. 

The protest will mark the fourth anniversary of the April 27 storm that brought hurricane-force winds to Turkmenabat. The storm claimed dozens of lives, but authorities in Ashgabat have never mentioned it — nor have they offered any support to the victims’ families. Rather, criminal cases were opened against the volunteers who tried to help people in the city on their own, the Warsaw Alliance have claimed in a statement.

The Alliance is demanding that Turkmen authorities acknowledge the storm as a historical fact, disclose the number of dead and injured, pay compensation to the injured citizens and their families, and declare April 27 as a day of mourning.

On 27 April 2020 there was a severe windstorm in Turkmenistan. The gales damaged a number of settlements in the Turkmenabat region, leaving hundreds of people homeless. Electricity, gas and drinking water were cut off for several days in places like Lebap, Turkmanabat (partially), Kerki and Farob (completely). Turkmen state television made no mention of the storm.

The windstorm also crossed into Uzbekistan, where one death and 41 injuries of various degrees were reported. In contrast to the response of the Turkmen government, Uzbekistan’s president Shavkat Mirziyoyev immediately flew to the city of Bukhara, where there was the most damage, to meet with residents.

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Image TCA, Aleksandr Potolitsyn

23 Apr 2024
Lead Story, Central Asia, Kazakhstan Lead Story, Home, International Affairs, Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan International Affairs

Disinformation Targets Kazakhstan’s Ties with China, Russia, and the U.S.

Over an eight-day period in April 2024, a barrage of news stories featuring rumors about Kazakhstan’s foreign policy permeated Chinese media. These dubious reports alleged that the U.S. had hyped an unverified leak from a Russian Duma official claiming Kazakhstan was engaged in covert negotiations to join NATO and suggested that Kazakhstan was seeking China’s support to deter a potential Russian invasion.

The series of articles highlights the “fog of war” that pervades not only the battlefields of Ukraine but also the media landscape, representing a new front where Kazakhstan risks becoming collateral damage. Kazakhstan’s president has not deviated from the country’s neutrality and has maintained a difficult yet strategic multi-vector foreign policy that seeks to diversify economic and security arrangements rather than aligning exclusively with one partner. The evident information war underscores the diplomatic sensitivities which Kazakhstan faces, and the sinister tactics employed by outside actors to disrupt domestic and regional balances.

 

Misleading narrative #1: The U.S. is hyping an alleged voice recording of an official claiming that Kazakhstan is Russia’s next target

On April 6, an alleged audio recording, attributed to Russian State Duma deputy and General Andrei Gurulov, hinted that Kazakhstan was set to become Russia’s next target. The leak surfaced on X (Twitter) and was reported by the New Voice of Ukraine just hours later. In the following two days, the story propagated across at least five Chinese platforms, with numerous reposts claiming that “the Western media has vigorously hyped…the recording scandal”.

The above post is machine translated from Chinese into English

 

A search on Google News on 21 April 2024 for “Andrei Gurulov” yielded no results, while a wider search revealed a single defense blog reporting on the alleged leak.

 

Misleading narrative #2: Kazakhstan is in covert discussions to join NATO

Between April 10 and April 11, an array of articles and blogs appeared on at least six Chinese language media platforms (and were reposted across numerous other outlets) about Kazakhstan’s intent to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The so-called “news” was based on an unverified and unconfirmed rumor.

The above post is machine translated from Chinese into English

 

The above post is machine translated from Chinese into English

 

Kazakhstan has not expressed an intention to join NATO as a full member. Instead, it has engaged with NATO through partnership programs and dialogue, focusing on security cooperation, counter-terrorism, and military training within frameworks like the Partnership for Peace (PfP) program, which Kazakhstan joined in 1995.

The above post is machine translated from Chinese into English

 

This is not the first case of gaslighting by the media on Kazakhstan-NATO issues. Images taken from the 2023 opening of a conference hall at the Peacekeeping Operations Center of the Ministry of Defense of Kazakhstan, which was attended by the U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan, resulted in similarly bizarre misrepresentations.

 

Misleading narrative #3: Kazakhstan seeks China’s security to counterbalance the Russian threat

On April 14 and April 15, the latest barrage of messaging set China as Kazakhstan’s preferred guarantor to protect it from the threat of Russian aggression. This story presents the Russian threat to Kazakhstan through references to the Gurulov audio recording and the “defense blog” mentioned above, as well as to the former Kazakhstan President Nazarbayev’s relationship with Russian President Putin. Although the article downplayed the Russian threat, it went to great lengths to depict a strained relationship between Kazakhstan and its northern neighbor.

The postings spotlight Kazakhstan’s collaboration with the U.S. over counter-terrorism efforts and its pursuit of the trans-Caspian Middle Corridor project connecting to the China-led Belt and Road Initiative, which circumvents Russia.

 

The above post is machine translated from Chinese into English

 

Making the case for deepened Chinese security cooperation, these posts highlight a long-scheduled Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting Astana that convened in April 2024, where Kazakhstan’s Secretary to the Security Council discussed and signed a protocol agreeing to enhance regional stability and safety with China. Given that eight other SCO member countries also discussed and signed said protocol, deducting from this occasion the conclusion Kazakhstan is approaching China for security guarantees would be a gross overreach.

Nonetheless, the story appeared multiple times on at least four Chinese platforms.

 

The apparent aim of the campaign

It is not clear if the above-listed misleading story lines were a coordinated attempt. The motivation behind their dissemination is likewise not apparent. However, there are several conceivable outcomes such a campaign would seek to achieve. The articles could aim to evoke concerns between rivaling states and the communities they represent. These false representations could include:

1) Kazakhstan has abandoned its neutrality and is building alliances with NATO and/or China; and

2) Kazakhstan’s leadership is jeopardizing the security of its people by provoking a conflict with Russia.

These articles could have been created by a state actor aiming to influence Kazakhstan’s government to alter its diplomatic stance towards the U.S., China or Russia. They could have also been placed by private Kazakhstani actors intent on making political gains by presenting Kazakhstan’s leadership as unhinged in its diplomatic engagement and thereby undermining the security of the country’s people.

While it should not be ruled out that the articles were placed in Chinese media to specifically target a Chinese audience, the reason behind this choice of placement may also have to do with obfuscating the original source of misinformation.

In any circumstance, this case serves to remind world audiences once again that purported news pertaining to any country’s relationship with Russia, China or the U.S. should be viewed with extreme prejudice and caution in the current geopolitical environment.

Times of Central Asia

Times of Central Asia

@iStock

23 Apr 2024
Central Asia, Kazakhstan Environment, Kazakhstan Local Politics, Kazakhstan Life & Culture, Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan Business & Economy

A Third Of Kazakhstan’s Flood-Protection Structures Are Damaged

More than 500 hydraulic structures in Kazakhstan intended to hold back water during floods need to be repaired, according to a report from the country’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation.

Specialists from the ministry, together with akimats (local administrations), counted 1,502 hydraulic structures in the country, of which 537 are damaged. According to the department, the hydraulic structures will be repaired as funds are received from the national budget.

The survey comes amid Kazakhstan’s battle with historic spring flooding, which has set in motion a frantic grind of evacuations, pumping water and shoring up dams. While the threat remains, water levels are declining in some areas and the country is working to help disaster victims over the long term.

Some 22,700 people who fled their homes to escape floodwaters have returned, and the flood situation has stabilized in some hard-hit places such as the Aktobe region, according to the government. Still, thousands of residents — many of them children — remain in evacuation centers, whilst others are in temporary housing. More than 100,000 people have been evacuated over the course of the crisis, which began in March as snow melted quickly in the warmer weather.

 

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