President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov pays state visit to India; Turkmenistan President Berdymuk¬hammedov in Romania; Kazakh agrees to send peacekeepers to Afghanistan; Kazakh state-owned oil and gas firm KazMunaiGas to join Karachaganak;
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    • President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov paid a state visit to India on May 17-18, to give new impetus to Uzbek-Indian interaction through materializing untapped opportunities, through enlarging the bilateral cooperation in political, economic, investment, cultural and humanitarian spheres. The two countries inked as many as 34 pacts in a range of areas that included hydrocarbons, IT and pharmaceuticals. Karimov met with India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a contracted format to deliberate on Uzbek-Indian cooperation, including resourceful interaction within international institutions like the United Nations and Shanghai Cooperation Organization.1 Uzbekistan has consistently supported India’s aspiration for permanent membership of the UN Security Council. The parties discussed the evolving situation in neighbouring Afghanistan and reaffirmed the necessity for the early establishment of peace and stability and on prospects emerging from setting up Central Asia-Persian Gulf land transport corridor as well as Trans-Afghan access strip.2

    According to reports, the core issues conferred during the summit have been those concerning trade and economic collaboration, including investment partnership. Uzbekistan supports the efforts of Indian companies to enhance investment cooperation in sectors they wield technological edge. The two sides agreed that among the most promising areas of bilateral partnership are information technologies, and especially software production, telecommunications equipment, distance learning and other spheres where Indian specialists have duly taken up leading positions in the world. Top-level Uzbek and Indian officials signed an action plan on tourism cooperation in the Indian capital New Delhi to expand the sector in both countries.3

    As highlighted in the Joint Statement on Strategic Partnership, relations between Uzbekistan and India are elevated to a level of long-term strategic partnership built on equality and mutual understanding, a partnership that will help foster a prolific interaction covering a broad array of areas, including political, economic, anti-terrorism, as well as education, healthcare, human resource development, science and technologies, tourism and culture. In particular, in excess of 30 projects are designed for implementation, including those in joint prospecting, exploration and production of hydrocarbons with India’s leading oil and gas company, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, along with manufacturing fiber-optic cables in Navoi free industrial and economic zone, a number of projects on the production of substances and various medicines. The agreement between Uzbek oil and gas corporation Uzbekneftegaz, which oversees the world’s tenth largest reserves of gas, and India's state-owned energy corporation Oil & Natural Gas Company (ONGC) Videsh was signed.4 Meanwhile, National Bank of Uzbekistan for Foreign Economic Activity has signed agreement with Export-Import Bank of India to establish a credit line on long-term privileged terms. The overall worth of the economic package underwritten during the current visit of Uzbek President exceeds 2.2 billion U.S. dollars.5

    Reports noted that the interest and outright support shown to Turkmenistan as a natural gas supplier for the Na¬bucco and AGRI pipeline projects, both via Romania are regarded as an attempt to lessen European dependence on Russian gas. The AGRI pipeline will transport gas from Turkmenistan— the main gas supplier— through the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan over the Black Sea coast of Georgia to Romania. Turk¬menistan is considered as one of the main suppliers apart from Azerbaijan and Iraq for the Na¬bucco project. 300-kilometer Trans-Caspian gas pipeline is considered as an integral part of the Nabucco project, designed to transport gas from the Caspian region and the Middle East to the EU. This pipeline will be laid from the Turkmen coast of the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan where it will join to the transportation routes of the Southern Energy Corridor. The un¬resolved issue of the status of the Caspian Sea has rendered the construction difficult.6 These pipelines would enable Turkmenistan to gain access to the European markets. Apart from pipelines, talks on transportation, infrastructure, civil engineering, Central Asia’s transnational waterways and education were held.

    According to reports, Kazakhstan has agreed to send peacekeepers to Afghanistan, a measure which was approved by the Kazakh parliament. Though the number of troops was not specified, they will be sent for a period of six months to cooperate with NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), and the commitment can be extended if both parties agree. During the stationing the Kazakh government will be responsible for financing the troops’ transportation, weapons and equipment. Kazakh military will be the first to be deployed in Afghanistan from Central Asia since the Soviet invasion in the 1980s. This adds to Kazakhstan’s earlier contribution to ISAF in the form of allowing U.S. military planes to fly over Kazakh air space and allowing cargo en route to Afghanistan to be transported through Kazakh territory.7 In the meanwhile Kazakhstan will enter the foreign-led development of the Karachaganak oil field, the Kazakh PM said on the sidelines of a meeting of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) held annually. The Kazakh government has been tussling with the foreign investors in the Karachaganak oil field – which include the BG Group, Italy’s ENI, Chevron Corp. and Lukoil – to give the state-owned oil and gas firm KazMunaiGas (KMG) a10 percent stake in the project.8

    In another development, South Korea’s Finance Ministry is understood to have said that South Korea is looking to implement “country-specific” cooperation programs in Central Asia as part of a plan to fine-tune its investment strategy in the region. It aims at securing deals for the region’s extensive natural resources while utilizing Korean expertise to help develop the rapidly emerging economies. South Korea can support sustainable growth in the ex-Soviet republics by establishing information technology industries, modernizing the agriculture and forestry sectors and laying a foundation for manufacturing business, the ministry said. Seoul aims to streamline legal and administrative rules to smooth bilateral cooperation, seek free trade pacts and launch programs on expert personnel exchanges as part of the strategy.9

    In other developments, the United States has appointed its first ambassador to Turkmenistan in five years. Robert Patterson is the first ambassador to take the post in Ashgabat, since Tracey Ann Jacobson left the position in 2006. The U.S. has been represented in Ashgabat since that time by a series of charge d’affaires. The relations between the U.S. and isolationist Turkmenistan have been improving in recent months. U.S. oil major ExxonMobil last year returned to Ashgabat to open an office in the Turkmen capital, after abruptly pulling out of Turkmenistan in 2002.U.S. oil companies ConocoPhillips, Chevron Corp and TXOil Ltd recently bid on blocks in the Caspian Sea. The U.S. State Department has also expressed its support for the proposed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline, a project which Turkmenistan has spearheaded.10

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