AI
Sunday, June 06, 2004 11:08:37 AM
Russia gets permanent base in Tajikistan
Russia is also developing military, technical and economical cooperation with Uzbekistan.
The significance of Russia’s presence in these two countries is obvious from the map.
-Am
Russia border guards to stay longer in Tajikistan
04 Jun 2004 18:25:07 GMT
By Oliver Bullough
MOSCOW, June 4 (Reuters) - Moscow won promises from reluctant Central Asian ally Tajikistan on Friday to extend the stay of Russian troops guarding the Tajik-Afghan border and to give a Russian military base a permanent legal status.
In exchange for the fresh strategic foothold in energy-rich former Soviet Central Asia, Russian pledged to write down some of impoverished Tajikistan's debt, Kremlin adviser Sergei Prikhodko said in televised comments.
Moscow has been concerned by a series of recent statements by senior Tajik officials that Russian guards should no longer control the 90 percent of the border they hold.
Russian officials have said such a step would lift a barrier against a flood of drugs from Afghanistan, source of most of the world's heroin, to Europe via Russia.
Tajik officials have openly said they wanted the Russians to go, to let Dushanbe focus on developing security cooperation with the United States that was established during the 2001 anti-Taleban military campaign in Afghanistan.
But Prikhodko said at a meeting at the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi that Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov had asked counterpart Vladimir Putin to extend the guards' stay until the end of 2006. They were expected to leave by mid-2005.
Putin and Rakhmonov appeared to have solved another thorny issue -- the status of a Russian military base in Tajikistan.
The 201 Division that Russia inherited from the Soviet Union played a stabilising role during Tajikistan's civil war in 1992-97, which killed more than 100,000 people. It also was a guarantor against an aggression from Taleban-ruled Afghanistan.
However, Tajikistan fuelled suspicions in Moscow by dragging its feet on a 1999 pact granting the division a formal status of a Russian military base.
"The places in Tajikistan where Russian military bases are deployed and also the territories currently being used by the Russian forces as practice ranges, will be handed to Russia on a permanent basis," Prikhodko said after Putin-Rakhmonov talks.
In October Russia opened a base in Central Asian Kyrgyzstan, which is seen as the return of Moscow's influence to the region after NATO established itself there during the Afghan war.
Prikhodko also said Tajikistan formally confirmed Russia's ownership of a space control centre at Nurek, which was built in 1980 for the Soviet space programme.
He also said some Tajik debt would be written off.
"It will be invested in large investment projects in the Tajik energy sector."
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L04641904.htm
Russia, Uzbekistan to sign Treaty on Strategic Partnership
04.06.2004, 11.48
TASHKENT, June 4 (Itar-Tass) - Russia and Uzbekistan have finished preparations for signing the Treaty on Strategic Partnership, Secretary of the Russian Security Council Igor Ivanov, who is concluding his tour of a number of Mediterranean countries, said here on Friday.
“We plan to sign this treaty, important and timely for both sides, during the upcoming arrival of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Tashkent soon to attend a summit of the Shanghai Organization of Cooperation,” Ivanov stressed at a press conference.
Igor Ivanov also expressed satisfaction with a high level of the bilateral political dialogue, dynamics of development of economic, military and technical cooperation between Russia and Uzbekistan. According to Ivanov, another important aspect of his Tashkent agenda was the preparation for the summit of the Shanghai Organization of Cooperation, which will be held in Tashkent on June 17.
During the visit to Uzbekistan, the head of the Russian Security Council had meetings with his Uzbek counterpart, Foreign Minister and President Islam Karimov.
“Karimov and I reviewed the whole range of bilateral relations in the light of the bilateral agreements achieved during the Uzbek president’s visit to Moscow in April 2004,” Ivanov stressed.
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=904679&PageNum=0
Russia is also developing military, technical and economical cooperation with Uzbekistan.
The significance of Russia’s presence in these two countries is obvious from the map.
-Am
Russia border guards to stay longer in Tajikistan
04 Jun 2004 18:25:07 GMT
By Oliver Bullough
MOSCOW, June 4 (Reuters) - Moscow won promises from reluctant Central Asian ally Tajikistan on Friday to extend the stay of Russian troops guarding the Tajik-Afghan border and to give a Russian military base a permanent legal status.
In exchange for the fresh strategic foothold in energy-rich former Soviet Central Asia, Russian pledged to write down some of impoverished Tajikistan's debt, Kremlin adviser Sergei Prikhodko said in televised comments.
Moscow has been concerned by a series of recent statements by senior Tajik officials that Russian guards should no longer control the 90 percent of the border they hold.
Russian officials have said such a step would lift a barrier against a flood of drugs from Afghanistan, source of most of the world's heroin, to Europe via Russia.
Tajik officials have openly said they wanted the Russians to go, to let Dushanbe focus on developing security cooperation with the United States that was established during the 2001 anti-Taleban military campaign in Afghanistan.
But Prikhodko said at a meeting at the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi that Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov had asked counterpart Vladimir Putin to extend the guards' stay until the end of 2006. They were expected to leave by mid-2005.
Putin and Rakhmonov appeared to have solved another thorny issue -- the status of a Russian military base in Tajikistan.
The 201 Division that Russia inherited from the Soviet Union played a stabilising role during Tajikistan's civil war in 1992-97, which killed more than 100,000 people. It also was a guarantor against an aggression from Taleban-ruled Afghanistan.
However, Tajikistan fuelled suspicions in Moscow by dragging its feet on a 1999 pact granting the division a formal status of a Russian military base.
"The places in Tajikistan where Russian military bases are deployed and also the territories currently being used by the Russian forces as practice ranges, will be handed to Russia on a permanent basis," Prikhodko said after Putin-Rakhmonov talks.
In October Russia opened a base in Central Asian Kyrgyzstan, which is seen as the return of Moscow's influence to the region after NATO established itself there during the Afghan war.
Prikhodko also said Tajikistan formally confirmed Russia's ownership of a space control centre at Nurek, which was built in 1980 for the Soviet space programme.
He also said some Tajik debt would be written off.
"It will be invested in large investment projects in the Tajik energy sector."
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L04641904.htm
Russia, Uzbekistan to sign Treaty on Strategic Partnership
04.06.2004, 11.48
TASHKENT, June 4 (Itar-Tass) - Russia and Uzbekistan have finished preparations for signing the Treaty on Strategic Partnership, Secretary of the Russian Security Council Igor Ivanov, who is concluding his tour of a number of Mediterranean countries, said here on Friday.
“We plan to sign this treaty, important and timely for both sides, during the upcoming arrival of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Tashkent soon to attend a summit of the Shanghai Organization of Cooperation,” Ivanov stressed at a press conference.
Igor Ivanov also expressed satisfaction with a high level of the bilateral political dialogue, dynamics of development of economic, military and technical cooperation between Russia and Uzbekistan. According to Ivanov, another important aspect of his Tashkent agenda was the preparation for the summit of the Shanghai Organization of Cooperation, which will be held in Tashkent on June 17.
During the visit to Uzbekistan, the head of the Russian Security Council had meetings with his Uzbek counterpart, Foreign Minister and President Islam Karimov.
“Karimov and I reviewed the whole range of bilateral relations in the light of the bilateral agreements achieved during the Uzbek president’s visit to Moscow in April 2004,” Ivanov stressed.
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=904679&PageNum=0
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