The UN Accepts CSTO as a Regional Security Organization
On March 18, in Moscow, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Collective Security Treaty Organization’s (CSTO) Secretary-General, Nikolay Bordyuzha, signed a declaration on cooperation between the two secretariats. The document, and the UN’s steps preceding it, can be interpreted as UN recognition of this Russian-led bloc in the “post-Soviet space.” The Russian side will doubtlessly construe the UN’s blessing as a full and unambiguous recognition of the CSTO (Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan). READ MORE
Collective Defense in Central Asia Contradicted by Rising National Spending
Despite the impact of the global economic crisis on all of the economies within the former Soviet Union, averaging a 7 percent decline in GDP in 2009, defense spending has increased in each state with the exception of Belarus (which remained unchanged in 2009 year-on-year at 1.5 percent of GDP). Defense spending, according to an extensive analysis in Nezavisimaya Gazeta, witnessed the sharpest increase in Georgia (4.56 percent of GDP), Armenia (4.07 percent) and Azerbaijan (3.95 percent). In the case of Armenia, this level of defense expenditure proved surprising in the context of its 15 percent decline in GDP in 2009. READ MORE
Tajikistan Facing Water Shortages And Climate Extremes, Report Warns
Falling supplies due to rising temperatures and retreating glaciers could spark conflict between water-stressed countries in the region, says Oxfam READ MORE
OSCE Focus Moves To The East
Next year, in accordance with a decision made at the 15th OSCE Ministerial Council in November 2007, Kazakhstan will preside over the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Thus, a former Soviet republic will occupy this position for the first time. Under the circumstances, it would be natural to expect Kazakhstan to do all it can to consolidate its positions on the world arena. Its officials have already announced their intentions to include illegal immigration and drug trafficking on the OSCE agenda, problems that are particularly relevant for all CIS countries. READ MORE
George Krol About US Relations With Central Asia Republics
George Krol, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs with VOA TV Uzbek Service – Navbahor Imamova. READ MORE
Uzbekistan Challenges Regional Electricity Supplies Network
Kyrgyzstan’s growing list of troubles has recently been further complicated by yet another predicament. Tashkent has announced that Uzbekistan is likely to leave the Central Asian power supply cascade in the coming months. According to Tashkent’s official interpretation, Uzbekistan can now provide its population with enough locally generated electricity and does not need to be part of the network created during the Soviet period. This means that Kyrgyzstan’s south and parts of Tajikistan will experience severe electricity shortages due to the break in regional cycles. READ MORE
Regional Cooperation In Central Asia: Improving The Western Track Record
As the twentieth anniversary of the independence of states of Central Asia approaches, it is appropriate to review what the international community has learned about the efficacy of regional cooperation in responding to the challenges that the Central Asian region has faced. The article attempts to answer the question why the international community; particularly western defined or dominated institutions, have only been partially successful in working with the countries of the region to work towards the amelioration of these issues, and regional cooperation, cooperation between the five Central Asian states has been disappointing. READ MORE
Germany - Central Asia: Words Must Be Backed Up By Action
Germany and the EU are ready to help the Central Asian countries improve the region’s water management. Minister of State Gernot Erler underlined this during the second EU-Central Asia conference at ministerial level in Brussels. In 2008 Germany, already recognizing
the problem, started the Central Asia Water Initiative. READ MORE
NATO and World Security
In the course of its 60 years, NATO has institutionalized three monumental transformations in world affairs: first, the end of the centuries-long “civil war” within the West for trans-oceanic and European supremacy; second, the United States’s post–World War II commitment to the defense of Europe against Soviet domination; and third, the peaceful termination of the Cold War, which created the preconditions for a larger democratic European Union. READ MORE
Georgia quits ex-Soviet “commonwealth”
One year after its short war with Russia, Georgia on Tuesday (18 August) became the first country to withdraw from the grouping of former Soviet republics, in a sign of rebellion met with disdain from Moscow. READ MORE
