The US Defense Department has gained an inordinate amount of influence over the distribution of security assistance in Central Asia, exerting an “oversized impact” on US foreign policy in the region, according to a report released October 15.
Russian frustration is rising with NATO’s “incomprehensible passivity” in efforts to contain Afghanistan’s growing drugs output. It has reached a point where some politicians in Moscow are starting to call for an active Russian military presence in Central Asia.
After declining to intervene in southern Kyrgyzstan’s turmoil over the summer, the Collective Security Treaty Organization is facing a fresh challenge in Tajikistan. And once again the Russia-led security group appears set to refrain from acting.
It appears that the US government is resolved to sticking with a competitive tender plan to cover future fuel supplies at the Manas Transit Center in Kyrgyzstan, despite a Kyrgyz provisional government preference to set up a joint venture involving a state-run entity and the Russian-state-run Gazprom conglomerate.
Contrary to expectations in Bishkek, Russian and Kyrgyz defense officials failed to sign an agreement to expand Russia’s military presence in Kyrgyzstan. Experts attribute the delay mainly to ongoing political uncertainty in Bishkek.
The US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has approved the nomination of Matthew Bryza as Washington’s ambassador to Azerbaijan, a post that has been vacant for more than a year. Azerbaijani media energetically heralded the committee vote, although most online outlets misinterpreted it to mean that Bryza had been confirmed as the new US envoy to Baku.
The Senate confirmation process for the Obama administration’s nominee as US envoy to Azerbaijan appears stuck in neutral. Experts believe that the confirmation has become entangled in partisan politics.
There is little about Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek that evokes images of Istanbul. But recent maneuverings concerning the potential establishment of a foreign military facility in southern Kyrgyzstan can only be described as Byzantine.
The South Pacific island of Nauru, the world’s smallest republic, sided with Russia in Moscow’s row with Tbilisi over the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Now it looks like Georgia has a proxy of its own in the South Pacific.
