From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Wed Feb 26 2003 - 14:01:23 EST
CASPIAN NEWS AGENCY
CNA all-inclusive newsline
/14:42 26.02.2003/ Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan financing to be discussed during
Aliyev visit to U.S.
Baku. February 26. 2003. (CNA). Negotiations with management from
international financial institutions on crediting the construction of
the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline are to be held during an official visit
to the U.S. by Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev, which began on
Monday, BP Azerbaijan President David Woodward told Interfax. He said
that there would be no problem with receiving a credit for the
construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. The project is already
being successfully implemented and it is planned to start laying the
Azerbaijani part of the pipeline by April 2003. In May the International
Finance Corporation will begin a procedure to approve financing for the
construction of the pipeline. "We believe that all financial issues will
be fully resolved by September 2003," Woodward said. Also participating
in the talks will be representatives from the State Oil Company of the
Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR), Georgian International Oil Corporation, BP
and Azerbaijan International Operating Company.
As part of the Aliyev visit, an international conference - East- West
Transport Corridor - will be held in Washington on February 25 to deal
with problems with the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and
Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipelines, Interfax reports. Participants in the
conference will include representatives from the U.S. presidential
administration, the head of the Georgian state oil company and the
Turkish deputy foreign minister. Aliyev noted in Baku airport prior to
his visit to the U.S. that the conference is being held to put an end to
talk from some sources about the lack of profitability of these
projects, which are on the threshold of implementation. "We will
continue the fight and achieve our aim," the president said.
______
/14:24 26.02.2003/ More than thirty parliamentarians from Armenia,
Azerbaijan and Georgia will meet in Tbilisi to discuss integration of
South Caucasian states into European structures
Tbilisi. February 26, 2003. (CNA). More than thirty membes of
parliaments from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia meet in Tbilisi on
February 26-28 within the frames of the South Caucasus Parliamentary
Initiative organized by the British NGO links.
Civil Georgia reports that the parliamentarians will discuss integration
of the South Caucasian states into the European structures during the
conference South Caucasus and Europe on February 26. Bilateral
negotiations are also scheduled. The South Caucasus Parliamentary
Initiative was launched in London in 2001. The aim of the Initiative is
to exchange views and develop frameworks for cooperation between the MPs
of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
______
/14:16 26.02.2003/ Exercises of frontier forces of Russia, Georgia and
Azerbaijan started in Dagestan
Makhchkala, February 26, 2003. (CNA). The experimental command and staff
exercises of the frontier forces of Russia, Georgia and Azerbaijan
started on Wednesday in Daghestan (the North Caucasus) on the basis of
the Caspian frontier detachment of the Russian Federation.
They are conducted jointly for the first time in the post-Soviet history
in the Caucasian region, RIA Novosti reports.
At this stage, in the course of two days the troops will carry out the
programme aimed at the co-ordination and the practical solution of
questions of interaction between the sides in guarding the state border
and close co-operation in this matter important for peace and stability
of the neighbour countries and peoples.
The day before, representatives of the North Caucasian regional
department of the Frontier Service of the Russian Federation, headed by
acting department chief Lieutenant General Valery Putov, arrived in
Makhachkala to take part in the exercises. Chief of staff of the state
department for guarding the frontier of Georgia Kornely Salia arrived
from Tbilisi, and first deputy commander, chief of staff of the state
frontier service General Khalilov Inayat Gidayat-ogly arrived from
Azerbaijan.
______
/14:13 26.02.2003/ India invited to join TransAfghan natural gas
pipeline project
Islamabad, Febraury 26. 2003. (CNA). Afghanistan, Pakistan and
Turkmenistan on Saturday invited India to join their US$3.2-billion
natural gas pipeline project, indicating the plan would not be
economically viable without New Delhi's participation, officials said on
Saturday.
The offer to India came after talks in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad,
between Turkmenistan's Deputy Prime Minister Yully Qurbanmuradova,
Afghan Petroleum and Mines Minister Juma Mohammad Mohammadi and
Pakistan's Petroleum Minister Nauraiz Shakoor.
The 1,460-kilometer (910-mile) pipeline would transport natural gas from
the Central Asian country of Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to
Pakistan. It also would give cash-strapped Afghanistan US$300 million in
annual fees and create 12,000 jobs in the country.
Begun in 1997, talks on a pipeline project were abandoned after the
United States fired cruise missiles into Afghanistan in 1998 in an
attack on Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network holed up in the country.
The pipeline, which would carry up to 20 billion cubic meters (700
billion cubic feet) of gas a year, could easily be extended to India -
but that seems unlikely while tension remains. It would tap into natural
gas wells at Turkmenistan's huge Dauletabad-Donmez field, which holds
more than 2.83 trillion cubic meters (100 trillion cubic feet) in gas
reserves, AP reports.
______
/14:08 26.02.2003/ Draft convention on the Caspian Sea legal status to
be discussed in Baku
Moscow. February 26, 2003. (CNA). The Deputy foreign ministers of the
five Caspian states - Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenia
- are to address a draft convention on the legal status of the Caspian
Sea at an expert meeting due on February 27-28 in Baku. The Russian
delegation is headed by Deputy Foreign Minister, Spokesman for the
President Viktor Kalyuzhny, the Russian Foreign Ministry reports.
The meeting was scheduled for last autumn, but was suspended thrice for
various reasons.
Nevertheless, the new round of talks brings the negotiating sides closer
together, experts believe. Thus, Iran standing for the demarcation of
the Caspian Sea on the equal shares principle no longer dismisses a
possibility of signing bilateral agreements on the issue. Such
agreements have already been signed between Russia, Kazakhstan and
Azerbaijan. Recently, Turkmenia has been nearing Russia's stand on the
issue, i.e. the Caspian seabed must be demarcated according to the
existing state borders, RIA Novosti reports.
______
/14:04 26.02.2003/ Kazakhstan for expansion of parliamentary ties with
Iran
Astana, February 26, 2003. (CNA). Kazakhstan's Majlis Chairman
Zharmakhan A. Tuyakbayev in Astana on Tuesday called for expansion of
parliamentary ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Tuyakbayev, who
made the remarks at a meeting with Tehran's Ambassador to Kazakhstan
Morteza Saffaari in Astana, stressed that strengthening of parliamentary
relations between Iran and Kazakhstan would help cement the two
countries' bilateral cooperation. He said the Kazakh Parliament welcomes
visits by Iranian parliamentary delegations, IRNA reported. The Iranian
envoy, in response, described as "desirous" and "growing" the current
relations between the two countries. He extended an invitation to the
Kazakh side to send parliamentary delegations to Iran in order to
strengthen relations between the two parliaments.
______
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