The Bug Pit
When U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Tbilisi tomorrow, will the question of a "de facto arms embargo" against Georgia be part of the discussions? Ahead of her trip, the U.S.'s top diplomat for Europe, Philip Gordon, had a press conference and was asked if the U.S. was allowing Georgia to buy weapons from U.S. manufacturers:
U.S. Central Command has laid out some of its expanding military aid programs with Tajikistan, which includes a new training center at Karatog and the apparent creation of a UN-ready peacekeeping unit. Obviously concerned about what can come across the border from Afghanistan, the U.S. is focusing its training on counterterrorism and counternarcotics:
Gen. Petraeus, the Northern Distribution Network and the "modern Silk Road"
Might the Northern Distribution Network -- the transport of U.S. and NATO military goods through Central Asia en route to Afghanistan -- blossom into a "modern Silk Road" that brings prosperity and stability to Central Asia? It's a theory that is either far-reaching and visionary, or completely unrealistic and possibly dangerous, depending on your point of view.
Tajikistan, with a shortage of young men due to labor migration and a military with a bad reputation for hazing, appears to have resorted to an age-old solution: press ganging. Reports IWPR:
Muhammadsharif Hamdamov, from the Matcha district of northern Tajikistan, said his nephew Mirzojon was picked up when an army recruitment squad raided the village of Buston, where he was working as a teacher.
Georgian officials are complaining that they are under an "arms embargo" from the U.S. and are blocked from rearming themselves in the wake of their 2008 war with Russia. According to a piece just published in Jane's Defence Weekly (article not online for non-subscribers), Georgia is looking to improve its air defense, anti-tank weaponry and communications equipment, but is being blocked by doing so by the U.S., they say:
Is the "international community" blaming Azerbaijan for the recent violence in Karabakh that killed several soldiers on each side? So claims Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian. Really? Well, not publicly, of course; the official statements are impartial. But Nalbandian says that that's what they are saying to the Armenians, according to RFE/RL:
An international peacekeeping force in Nagorno Karabakh seems like it would be a long way away, but Iran has already weighed in on who they don't want participating: the U.S. Reports RFE/RL:
The head of Armenia's CSTO office says, yes:
"If, may God never let it happen, Azerbaijan takes concrete military steps, naturally, based on the requirement of Point 4 of CSTO statute its members shall provide [Armenia] with assistance, I am stressing it, also with military assistance, as Armenia is a CSTO member," Director of CSTO Armenian representation Nver Torosyan said at a press conference today.
The State Department's top human rights official was in Tashkent last week, and at a press conference he was asked about the possibility of Uzbek companies to ties with the government's most notorious human rights abusers getting contracts with the Pentagon for the Northern Distribution Network.