• KGS/USD = 0.01144 0%
  • KZT/USD = 0.00200 0%
  • TJS/USD = 0.09156 -0.11%
  • UZS/USD = 0.00008 0%
  • TMT/USD = 0.28530 -0.14%
  • KGS/USD = 0.01144 0%
  • KZT/USD = 0.00200 0%
  • TJS/USD = 0.09156 -0.11%
  • UZS/USD = 0.00008 0%
  • TMT/USD = 0.28530 -0.14%
  • KGS/USD = 0.01144 0%
  • KZT/USD = 0.00200 0%
  • TJS/USD = 0.09156 -0.11%
  • UZS/USD = 0.00008 0%
  • TMT/USD = 0.28530 -0.14%
  • KGS/USD = 0.01144 0%
  • KZT/USD = 0.00200 0%
  • TJS/USD = 0.09156 -0.11%
  • UZS/USD = 0.00008 0%
  • TMT/USD = 0.28530 -0.14%
  • KGS/USD = 0.01144 0%
  • KZT/USD = 0.00200 0%
  • TJS/USD = 0.09156 -0.11%
  • UZS/USD = 0.00008 0%
  • TMT/USD = 0.28530 -0.14%
  • KGS/USD = 0.01144 0%
  • KZT/USD = 0.00200 0%
  • TJS/USD = 0.09156 -0.11%
  • UZS/USD = 0.00008 0%
  • TMT/USD = 0.28530 -0.14%
  • KGS/USD = 0.01144 0%
  • KZT/USD = 0.00200 0%
  • TJS/USD = 0.09156 -0.11%
  • UZS/USD = 0.00008 0%
  • TMT/USD = 0.28530 -0.14%
  • KGS/USD = 0.01144 0%
  • KZT/USD = 0.00200 0%
  • TJS/USD = 0.09156 -0.11%
  • UZS/USD = 0.00008 0%
  • TMT/USD = 0.28530 -0.14%
19 February 2025

Viewing results 1 - 6 of 37

Uzbekistan Airways Reroutes Flights to Europe, Avoiding Russia and Belarus

Uzbekistan Airways has altered its flight routes to Europe, bypassing Russian and Belarusian airspace. The airline’s chairman, Shukhrat Khudoykulov, announced the decision at a press conference on January 28, according to local media reports. Flights are now taking a more southern route through Azerbaijan and Turkey. The change took effect on January 20, 2025. Reason for the Rerouting The airline’s press service told Kun.uz that the decision was made based on a recommendation from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and was not related to the recent Azerbaijan Airlines crash. “This is a recommendation from the European Aviation Safety Agency since we also serve European passengers,” the airline’s statement said. The change comes in the wake of the Azerbaijan Airlines crash on December 25, 2024. The aircraft, which was flying from Baku to the Russian city of Grozny, crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan. Of the 67 people on board, 38 died, while 29 survived. Initial reports suggested that a Russian air defense system may have mistakenly shot down the plane during a Ukrainian drone attack on Grozny. A missile reportedly exploded near the aircraft, damaging its fuselage. Kazakhstan, which initially led the investigation, has transferred the case to Brazil’s aviation safety agency (CENIPA). The findings have been sent back to Kazakhstan and are expected to be released soon. Impact on Flight Times and Costs In response to Repost.uz, Uzbekistan Airways clarified that the change was made as a precautionary measure and also to helps optimize flight routes. The rerouting has increased travel distances. For example, the Tashkent-Munich flight, which previously covered 4,849 kilometers when flying through Russia, now spans 5,156 kilometers. This adds 30 to 40 minutes to flight times and raises operational costs for the airline.

Nazarbayev Agrees to Meet Belarusian President Lukashenko

Former Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has agreed to meet with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, according to a statement released by the Belarusian leader’s press service. “Today, there was a very warm, friendly conversation between the President of Belarus and the First President of Kazakhstan. Nursultan Nazarbayev cordially congratulated Alexander Lukashenko on his election victory and conveyed his sincere congratulations and greetings to the Belarusian people. Alexander Lukashenko also warmly thanked Nursultan Nazarbayev for his kind words and wishes. The Belarusian leader and the First President of Kazakhstan agreed to find an opportunity to meet and talk in the near future,” the statement read. The meeting is part of a series of diplomatic engagements Nazarbayev has undertaken recently. In December 2024, he held a high-profile meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence. That visit sparked considerable public attention in Kazakhstan, with some parliamentarians expressing concern. Mazhilis Deputy Samat Nurtaza stated that such meetings cause him “internal anxiety.” Meanwhile, Deputy Yermurat Bapi suggested that Nazarbayev’s visit to Russia might be linked to the “Kazakhgate-2” case currently under review in the United States. Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus since 1994, has faced significant international criticism following his re-election on January 26, a process widely dismissed in the West as neither free nor fair. While the Belarusian Central Election Commission reported that Lukashenko secured 87.6% of the vote, the European Union and other international organizations denounced the results as “fictitious” and criticized the election for failing to meet democratic standards. Despite the controversy, Lukashenko has received congratulations from various world leaders, including Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who reportedly congratulated Lukashenko during a phone call. According to the state-run BelTA news agency, the election was monitored by 486 international observers from 52 countries, as well as over 44,000 national representatives. However, independent observers and western governments have cast doubt on the credibility of these reports. The forthcoming Nazarbayev-Lukashenko meeting is expected to further discussions on regional and bilateral issues, though no specific details have been released.

Lukashenko Turns Up Charm After Kazakhstan Kerfuffle

In August, Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko drew a Kazakh rebuke after he criticized Kazakhstan for what he described as its tepid support for Russia. Lukashenko was a model of diplomatic etiquette on Tuesday, effusively praising Kazakhstan as a close ally during a ceremony at which he received credentials of foreign ambassadors. “Today there are practically no areas where we do not have common interests. Annual $1 billion trade turnover and successful projects in industrial interaction testify to the high dynamics of bilateral cooperation,” the longtime Belarusian ruler said of Kazakhstan. Lukashenko´s comments were reported by Belarus Today, a state-run media group. The Belarusian president also thanked Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev for supporting Belarus when it became a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional security group, earlier this year, according to Belarus Today. Kazakhstan was chair of the organization at the time. Things weren’t as convivial in August when Lukashenko, a backer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, suggested in an interview with Russian state television that Kazakhstan was exploiting Russia, now in a third year of war since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. “We are not starting to cheat like some post-Soviet states. They want to take something from Russia, but give nothing in return,” Lukashenko said at the time. The longtime leader of Belarus, who has crushed opposition over 30 years in power, referred to the dispatch of troops from regional countries to Kazakhstan in a show of support after protests and riots erupted there in January 2022, killing more than 200 people. Most of the troops were Russian; a small contingent came from Belarus. Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Belarusian ambassador after Lukashenko’s remarks and said, in an apparently oblique reference to the Ukraine war, that “all disagreements between states should be resolved by political and diplomatic means.” Kazakhstan’s new ambassador in Belarus is Yerlan Baizhanov, formerly the country’s top diplomat in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

The Illusion of Influence: The CSTO’s Journey From Symbolic Maneuvers To Real Challenges

Accompanied by a picture of military hardware - though in reverse gear as if symbolically - today, the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization) website announced that “From 26 to 30 September, formations participating in the command-staff exercise 'Unbreakable Brotherhood-2024' with the CSTO Peacekeeping Forces are regrouping in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Contingents of CSTO troops are being sent from the Republic of Belarus, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, and the Republic of Tajikistan to the exercise area in accordance with the plan.” In reality, the history of the CSTO is one of refusals, inaction, and sometimes unexpected successes. On August 31, Armenia announced it had frozen its participation in the CSTO. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said he would not name the day when Armenia would leave the CSTO and called the decision to freeze the republic's participation in all structures of the organization correct “at this stage.” In many ways, this half-hearted decision reflects a certain amorphousness that originally characterized the CSTO.   History The history of the structure's emergence reflects this lack of crystalline form. The Collective Security Treaty (CST) was signed in Tashkent between Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan on May 15, 1992. Azerbaijan, Belarus and Georgia later joined in 1993. The treaty came into effect in 1994 and was set to last five years. During the 1990s and the disintegration of Soviet-era institutions, organizations such as the CSTO or the previously created Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), whose founding protocol was signed in Almaty, were created to facilitate a smooth “divorce” between the newly independent states. The CSTO was also seen as a force capable of curbing the regional conflicts which were boiling over, such as the Mujaheddin in Afghanistan. Tashkent's bet on Russian weapons in case of conflicts with the Taliban did not work out, however. From the turn of the 1990s into the 2000s, two serious fissures across the borders of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan took place; the republics fought back with their own military and weapons, in addition to Kazakhstan coming to the rescue. The Collective Security Treaty expired in 1999, with Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Georgia withdrawing, whilst Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan soldiered on under a new pact. The remaining states later transformed the CST into the Collective Security Treaty Organization in 2002. Uzbekistan joined as a full member of the CSTO in 2006 but then flip-flopped and suspended its membership in 2012.   A powerless organization While the CSTO was still developing, with President Vladimir Putin coming to power in Russia, the Kremlin's foreign policy changed substantively from that of the Yeltsin era, when Moscow remained indifferent to Nursultan Nazarbayev's integration initiatives. The new direction of Russian foreign policy was expressed in the concepts of “Russia rising from its knees” and the "gathering of lands.” Over time, this evolved into joint war games and military operations with the West in the Middle East and Africa, and for a period the Kremlin seemed to lose interest in Central Asia....

Pakistan Joins Transport Corridor Between Indian Ocean and Eastern Europe

Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Transport has announced that Pakistan has officially joined the memorandum of understanding on establishing and developing the international transport corridor "Belarus–Russia–Kazakhstan–Uzbekistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–Indian Ocean." The Pakistani Ministry of Communications signed this memorandum on September 18. The process of creating this multimodal transport corridor began in August 2022, at a meeting between the Uzbek government and the Eurasian Economic Commission – the governing body of the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union that also includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. In November 2023, the transport ministries of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan signed a memorandum of understanding, launching the project's active phase of work. The group's first meeting on developing the proposed multimodal transport corridor was held in April 2024 in Termez, Uzbekistan. During that meeting, Belarus joined the memorandum, while Afghanistan and Pakistan announced the beginning of internal procedures for joining the project. At that meeting, a roadmap was signed, including specific plans for the development of cargo transportation, analysis of cargo flows, introduction of electronic digital documents, and optimization of customs procedures. The participating countries expect that the new corridor will become an important link in Eurasia's transport system, providing convenient and efficient routes for the transit of goods and strengthening economic cooperation.

Kyrgyzstan Hosts CSTO Exercises

According to a statement from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), troops from five of the organization's six member states -- Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Tajikistan -- have convened this week at the Edelweiss military training ground in Kyrgyzstan's Issyk-Kul region for training. The joint exercises involve over five thousand people and 900 units of military equipment, with only Armenia not represented. “The tasks of the exercise include improving mechanisms for making and implementing decisions on the use of forces and means, as well as increasing coherence between the armies of the allied countries and the interoperability of military formations in preparing and conducting joint operations,” said Andrei Serdyukov, Chief of the CSTO Joint Staff. The exercises combine various training components. The maneuvers include special exercises with intelligence forces, and logistics exercises. The Interaction-2024 command-staff exercise is aimed at preparing for a joint operation to resolve a potential armed conflict. [caption id="attachment_22933" align="aligncenter" width="300"] @TCA. A.Chipegin[/caption] The CSTO press service said that one of the exercise's priorities this year is to improve the deployment of the collective forces, including managing the transit of military contingents through allied countries. Observers from nine countries are present at the Edelweiss ground: Algeria, China, Egypt, India, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Uzbekistan. Also observing the exercise are representatives of the UN Secretariat, the SCO Secretariat, the CIS Executive Committee, and the CIS Anti-Terrorism Center. “In our dynamically changing world, security is becoming paramount, and this requires new approaches, effective coordination, and clear solutions... Our countries have become direct participants in the beginning reshuffle of forces in the world,” Lieutenant General Baktybek Bekbolotov, Kyrgyzstan's Minister of Defense, commented at the opening of the exercise. According to Bekbolotov, the main threats to the countries of Central Asia are terrorism, separatism, and extremism, as well as the arrival of radical groups from the Middle East to the region's borders. “With a global threat, the efforts of one country are not enough. There are regional organizations for this purpose; in our case, the main one is the CSTO,” Bekbolotov stressed.