US, Kazakhstan sign agreement for cooperation in nuclear security and safeguards; India seeks to acquire uranium mines in Kazakhstan; Kyrgyz coalition government collapses after new president sworn in; Tajik FM meets Afghan and Iran FMs during the Bonn co
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    • According to reports, the Kazakh Ministry of Industry and New Technology (MINT) signed an Implementing Arrangement with the US National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) which provides a framework to expand technical cooperation in containment and surveillance of nuclear materials, nuclear safety and waste management, nuclear forensics, and information management.1

    In the meanwhile, reports noted that the Government of India is looking to acquire uranium mines in Kazakhstan in a bid to satisfy the country’s growing energy needs, apart from seeking to secure nuclear mining assets in South Africa and possibly Australia, said RK Sinha, Director at the Mumbai-based Bhabha Atomic Research Center.2

    In another development, reports noted that Almazbek Atambayev who won the October 30, 2011 presidential elections, took over as Kyrgyzstan's president from Roza Otunbayeva. Outgoing Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbayeva, whose handing off power to Atambayev marks the first time a Central Asian leader has voluntarily relinquished power to a successor, in her last address to the nation apologized for failing to prevent the ethnic conflict that erupted in June 2010. 3

    Reports noted that one of the important tasks that the new president emphasized was to repair damaged ethnic relations and a dangerous north-south political divide that have threatened to tip the country into more violence.4 However, the coalition government of Kyrgyzstan collapsed the very next day of the inauguration of the country’s new president. Leader of the Socialist Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan (SDPK) Chynybay Tursunbekov said he was pulling his faction out of the coalition over differences on judicial, political, and economic reforms.5 This leaves Atambayev to direct the country’s parliamentary deputies to negotiate a new coalition. In the meanwhile, the government of Turkey has waived Kyrgyzstan’s foreign debt of $49.2 million extended to the latter in the early 1990s by the Export Credit Bank of Turkey to finance bilateral investment and commercial ventures.6

    Reports noted that an international ministerial meeting was held in Turkmenistan wherein high-level officials of the five Central Asian states and a range of other countries had met to develop a regional plan of action to implement the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy.7

    According to reports, Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip during his visit to Ashgabat extended his country’s support to assist Turkmenistan in the areas of up-to-date production, maritime transport and shipbuilding, information and communication technology and networks. While Estonian firms are also willing to help upgrade the Caspian Sea port at Turkmenbashi, both countries focused on ways to strengthen collaboration in the fuel and energy sector.8

    In a related development, senior-level Turkish business group— Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists of Turkey (TUSKON), met with their Turkmen compatriots in Dushanbe last week to figure out ways to expand bilateral cooperation in spheres of transport, trade, tourism, education, and health care.9 Talks also focused on joint ventures and resuming direct flights to Turkey.

    In other developments, according to reports, the Uzbekistan Senate has last week approved a bill to limit presidential term from seven to five years. The bill was initiated by President Islam Karimov to strengthen democratic principles of governance by increasing the role and importance of the country’s parliament, which is regarded by many as a ruse to fight elections on the basis of the new rule while not counting the previous two decades of ruler-ship as part of the same.10 Also, Uzbek officials confirmed that Tashkent will offer a 15-year tax exemption incentive to Pakistani entrepreneurs setting up in its specialized investment zones, while welcoming Pakistani entrepreneurs to set up and export their products to Russia and the other markets of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).11

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