During a Central Asian tour that focused on regional security issues, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gingerly applied pressure on the presidents of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to improve their dubious human rights records. When pressing Uzbek President Islam Karimov to reform, Clinton reportedly secured a commitment from him to change his ways.
A Kyrgyz-Russian joint enterprise set up specifically to corner the fuel contract at the US-operated Manas Transit Center near Bishkek will begin deliveries of aviation fuel in November.
US legislators are willing to lift restrictions on the Defense Department’s ability to provide military assistance to Uzbekistan, a country with one of the world’s worst human rights records.
Provisional President Roza Otunbayeva has authorized the creation of a special oversight body that will monitor how Pentagon payments for the use of the Manas Transit Center are handled.
Uzbekistan’s desire to keep the Kremlin at bay appears to influence its participation in the Northern Distribution Network, a major supply line for the Afghan war effort.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev traveled to Russia on Aug. 9 to meet with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. Much of the media coverage ahead of this visit focused on Russia’s continuing efforts to negotiate a settlement to the ongoing conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. However, Russia and Azerbaijan had broader-reaching issues to discuss.
Apple Computer, the global technology force, is finding that the formerly Soviet Republic of Georgia is a haven for copycat artists. But some Georgian high-tech experts contend that having unauthorized dealers in Tbilisi works to Apple’s advantage by boosting its brand recognition.
The US Department of Defense is reviewing contracting data stored in the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) after a series of clerical errors in the classification of some contracts came to light.
Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on June 23 pressed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Obama administration plans to accelerate the US military drawdown in Afghanistan.
Rakhat Aliyev, the scandal-prone former son-in-law of Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev, has stirred up trouble in his homeland and in Europe. Now, he’s tried to make waves in Washington. But he’s found that a spin war in the United States can quickly turn into a quagmire.
