Tag: Kirghizia
On December 24th the President of Kyrgyzstan, Almazbek Atambayev, held a major press conference in Bishkek which was notable for a series of important statements on foreign and domestic policy. According to analysts, the tone and the meaning behind his statements implied that Kyrgyzstan had embarked upon the path of a closer alliance with Russia. One of the most resounding of President Atambayev’s remarks was in regard to the future of the U.S. military base in Kyrgyzstan. «There should be no military dimension at Manas international airport», he stated… According to the president of Kyrgyzstan, the American presence has had a destabilizing effect on the region…
Russia's positions in Central Asia are increasingly coming under pressure as the deadline for the US withdrawal from Afghanistan is drawing closer. Uzbekistan was the first to subject its relations with Russia in the security sphere to a serious overhaul, and in no time the trend has proved contagious. So far, the defiance of other Central Asian republics is limited to demands of higher compensations for hosting Russian military bases: recently, Tajikistan rolled out an unprecedented cost of lease for Russia's 201st military base, and Kyrgyzstan indicated three sites on its soil would come at a higher charge for Moscow…
The June summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) highlighted China's swelling economic presence in Central Asia. Chinese premier Hu Jintao unveiled an ambitious agenda for the region, with $10b in loans to be infused into the corresponding projects. At the moment, the Chinese investments in Central Asian republics estimatedly total $20b, and Beijing evidently aims at the role of the main economic partner of the entire Central Asia, especially in the spheres of energy and transit…
The first group of experts from the international commission investigating the June, 2010 clashes in the southern part of Kyrgyzstan plans to be in Osh by early September. Osh mayor M. Myrzakmatov reacted negatively to the plan. He told Russia's Kommersant daily that “the deployment of the OSCE police forces in South Kyrgyzstan would be tantamount to replaying the Kosovo scenario in the Fergana Valley”, obviously meaning that in the Kosovo case a piece of the sovereign country had been torn out of it by force.