Eurasia Week in Review - July 25, 2014
Central Eurasia Week in Review—July 25, 2014
Kyrgyzstan voiced concern over decreased U.S. security assistance, while NATO officials continue to discuss cooperation with Georgia and Azerbaijan. Read these stories and other news highlights in the Central Eurasian region below.
Josh Kucera discussed complaints by the Kyrgyz government concerning the recent decrease in U.S. security assistance following last month's closing of the Manas airbase. The State Department responded by saying:
“Our security cooperation has historically included bilateral work on key, mutually-beneficial areas of counterterrorism, counter-narcotics, border security, and building peacekeeping capability. The termination of the 2009 Agreement for Cooperation in July 2014 severely inhibits the ability of the United States to continue its military assistance and cooperation with the defense and security ministries of the Kyrgyz Republic.”
The Azerbaijani Deputy Defense Minister announced the country would continue to make the reforms needed to integrate its military standards to that of NATO’s. The Azerbaijani military is in the process of acquiring NATO defense systems, and phasing out Russian ones, in an effort to become more closely aligned with NATO.
A NATO Parliamentary Assembly Delegation arrived in Georgia on on Friday to meet with high-level officials to discuss the “substantive package” of cooperation with the country that was announced last month. While details about the agreement remain vague, NATO continues to increase its ties with Georgia to counter Russian influence in the region.
There have been recent signs of warming relations between Azerbaijan and Iran, marked by the announced visit of the Iranian Defense Minister to Azerbaijan in September. In a commentary for EurasiaNet, Eldar Memedov highlighted the significance of the thaw. As Memedov argued, “both Azerbaijan and Iran have a common interest in preventing a resurgent Russia from expanding and solidifying its influence in the South Caucasus.”
On Monday, the Commonwealth of Independent States’ (CIS) Council of Defense Ministers, comprised of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, met to improve multilateral cooperation. The group announced plans to hold over 30 joint military exercises in 2015.
Kazakh and Belarusian officials met to discuss cooperation on fighting transnational organized crime and terrorism. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, both countries continue to struggle with organized crime in the form of drug trafficking, human trafficking, and racketeering.
The U.S. will allocate over $12 million to Uzbek law enforcement and customs bodies. The funding will be used towards projects that strengthen border security and customs enforcement to help disrupt drug trafficking in Central Asia.
Azerbaijan reported spending over $196 million on defense between January and June 2014, a 24.5 percent increase from the same period last year.
Kyrgyzstan announced it would hold peacemaking exercises with fellow members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which include Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Tajikistan. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan held joint military exercises with Russia in the Caspian Sea.
The Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) organized a series of seminars on implementing security and confidence-building measures in Turkmenistan. The OSCE seminars will help defuse tensions between Afghanistan and Turkmenistan following recent border clashes.
Former Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev was sentenced to life in prison in absentia for his involvement in the killing of protesters during the 2010 uprising that ousted him.