News Digest
ISLAMIC FOREIGN MINISTERS\' MEETING ENDS IN AZERBAIJAN
By empty (6/22/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
A three-day meeting of foreign ministers of Organization of the Islamic Conference member states concluded in Baku on June 21 with the adoption of a Baku Declaration. That declaration condemns terrorism as a phenomenon that has no basis in either ethnicity or religion, in line with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev\'s statement in his address to the opening session that \"we must not acquiesce to attempts to equate Islam with terrorism.\" It also condemned Armenian \"aggression\" against Azerbaijan and demanded the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all Armenian forces from occupied Azerbaijani territory.CHINESE OIL COMPANY BUYS INTO RUSSIA
By empty (6/21/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Sinopec, which is a Chinese state-run oil company, will buy TNK-BP\'s Udmurtneft and sell a 51 percent stake in it to Rosneft while retaining the remaining 49 percent for itself, Russian media reported on June 20, quoting a Rosneft statement. \"The Moscow Times\" commented on June 21 that the deal gives \"Beijing its first stake in Russian oil and paves the way for a strategic partnership with Rosneft.\" China has actively sought out new sources of energy and natural resources abroad as its economy and notoriously inefficient energy sector expand.TUKRMENISTAN THREATENS TO CUT GAS EXPORTS
By empty (6/21/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Turkmenistan threatened Wednesday to halt natural gas shipments to Russia\'s Gazprom state-controlled natural gas giant if it does not agree to a 30 percent price hike. Turkmen Energy Minister Kurbanmurad Atayev said that the energy-rich Central Asian state intends to increase gas prices from the current $65 per 1,000 cubic meters to $100 starting next month and warned it would cut exports if Gazprom doesn\'t accept the new price. “If within a month and a half we don\'t work out a contract with Gazprom, Turkmenistan will halt the exports,\" Atayev said in a statement released by the government.BUSH, SAAKASHVILI TO DISCUSS GEORGIAN SETTLEMENT IN WASHINGTON
By empty (6/20/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
U.S. President George W.Visit also
Staff Publications
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, Greater Central Asia as A Component of U.S. Global Strategy, October 2024.
Analysis Laura Linderman, "Rising Stakes in Tbilisi as Elections Approach," Civil Georgia, September 7, 2024.
Analysis Mamuka Tsereteli, "U.S. Black Sea Strategy: The Georgian Connection", CEPA, February 9, 2024.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell, ed., Türkiye's Return to Central Asia and the Caucasus, July 2024.
Book Svante E. Cornell, ed., "The Changing Geopolitics of Central Asia and the Caucasus" AFPC Press/Armin LEar, 2023.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell and S. Frederick Starr, Stepping up to the “Agency Challenge”: Central Asian Diplomacy in a Time of Troubles, July 2023.
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, U.S. Policy in Central Asia through Central Asian Eyes, May 2023.