The Bug Pit
Looking for the latest inside information on defense and security in Kazakhstan and Central Asia? Look no further than business intelligence outfit Business Monitor International, which just released its new report, Kazakhstan and Central Asia Defence & Security Report Q3 2010. The press release announcing its publication starts out:
Iran will not be joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization when the group holds its summit next week in Tashkent. That's according to Itar-Tass, according to an unnamed Russian source:
Iran applied in 2008 to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a security and defense bloc led by Beijing and Moscow and seen as a counterweight to NATO.
Is Turkmenistan's military cooperating with "the powerful military powers in the world" and contracting "foreign military experts" into the Turkmenistan armed forces? That's what an Uzbekistan-based human rights group, Najot, said, in an email reporting on a recent meeting of Turkmenistan's National Security Council (translated from the Russian by Google):
So, the Kazakhstan defense expo KADEX has finished, and the big "news" out of the show was that Kazakhstan's state military defense industry holding company Kazakhstan Engineering signed Memoranda of Understanding with three companies: Russia's Rosoboronexport, Turkey's Aselsan, and France's Thales.
The railway connecting the Afghanistan-Uzbekistan border with Mazar-e-Sharif has been launched, according to an ISAF press release:
KABUL, Afghanistan – Construction of the railway line between Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistan, and Termez, Uzbekistan, was officially launched in the Afghan border town of Hairatan, Tuesday....
Seen at KADEX:
Attention, aspiring Central Asian defense contractors: the Pentagon has issued a new tender:
The Defense Energy Support Center (DESC) has a requirement for Russian Grade Jet Fuel
Casting for the next Bruce Lee? A new krav maga/tai chi fusion workout?
Is the Uzbekistan-Tajikistan dispute holding up NATO supplies to Afghanistan?
The ongoing dispute between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, which has halted rail traffic between the two countries, is causing some delay to NATO shipments into Afghanistan, Tajikistan says:
Uzbekistan prevents the transit of NATO cargo, going to Afghanistan, Vladimir Sobkalov, the first deputy head of Tajik railways (TR), informed Ferghana.Ru.