External Actors and Geopolitical Pivoting in the South Caucasus By Marat Terterov, PhD, Founder, and former Executive Director of the EGF
Small countries often find themselves having to make difficult choices when it comes to navigating optimal pathways for their national development. Their relations with larger powers, as well as competing relations between larger powers with an interest in specific regions where small countries are located, will invariably impact on their development. One of the regions of the world where the impact of larger powers on the development of smaller countries is highly evident is the South Caucasus, a region of the former-Soviet Union predominantly associated with the countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. These three relatively small yet important countries in a region of strategic importance have come a long way since they became independent nation states following the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991.
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- Saturday, 20 July 2024, 11:44
What is behind the Azerbaijan–Pakistan love affair? By Benyamin POGHOSYAN, PhD, Chairman, Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies
Recently, Azerbaijan–Pakistan ties have grown significantly through economic and military-technical cooperation. Pakistan threw its full support behind Azerbaijan during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, supplying weapons and providing training for Azerbaijani special forces. When Azerbaijan claimed victory in November 2020, the streets of Baku were full of Pakistani flags. Relations grew closer still after 2020, with intensive negotiations to buy Pakistani-made military jets and supply Azerbaijani gas to Pakistan. They discussed a series of joint projects worth $2 billion, setting up a bilateral committee to develop the projects. Most importantly, President Aliyev expressed his full support for Pakistan on the issue of Kashmir, claiming that international law and justice are on the side of Pakistan.
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- Saturday, 20 July 2024, 11:43
Türkiye Demonstrates Increased Interest in BRICS Membership
By Fuad Shahbazov, Baku-based independent regional security and defence analyst
On June 11, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan attended a session of the BRICS group (a loose political-economic grouping originally consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) in Moscow. While there, he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu. During the face-to-face meeting with Putin, Fidan discussed bilateral economic and political relations, focusing on the geopolitical turmoil in the Middle East caused by the war in Gaza. Putin vowed to “fully support” Turkish membership in BRICS and build stronger ties to facilitate further economic cooperation. Fidan’s visit to Russia came shortly after he visited China, where he reiterated Ankara’s willingness to join BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). These pronouncements have raised eyebrows in the West. US Ambassador to Türkiye Jeff Flake declared that Türkiye’s place is “in the West” and voiced his hope that Ankara would decide against joining the bloc. READ MORE
- Saturday, 20 July 2024, 08:14
Uzbekistan plans to increase exports of electrical products to Europe, countries of South Asia and the Middle East Yuri Kutbitdinov,
chief Research Officer of the Center for Economic Research and Reforms under the Administration of the President of the
Republic of Uzbekistan
There are about a thousand manufacturing enterprises operating in the electrical engineering sector of Uzbekistan, most of them small, producing over two thousand types of products. Almost all enterprises in the industry are privately owned. The total number of people employed in the industry exceeds 35,000.
The 76 largest enterprises in the industry, which produce over 90% of all electrical engineering products, are members of the Association of Electrical Engineering Manufacturers (UzEltechSanoat). Of these, 18 enterprises manufacture electrical wires and cables, 27 enterprises manufacture household appliances, and 32 enterprises manufacture power transformers and other electrical products.
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- Saturday, 20 July 2024, 08:13
Uzbekistan: civil society institutions — a bridge between society and state Anvarjon Mirkomilov, Head of Department
Development Strategy Center
Today, civil society institutions, particularly non-governmental non-profit organizations (NGOs), play an active role in Uzbekistan's development and the implementation of the “Uzbekistan – 2030” strategy. It is impossible to build a new Uzbekistan without organizing the activities of NGOs, the most important institution of civil society, according to democratic principles. On this basis, effective work is being done to support NGOs and civil society institutions, strengthen social partnerships with state bodies, implement effective public oversight, and improve the legal framework governing this area.
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- Saturday, 29 June 2024, 18:01
Environmental Challenges: The Future of Human Rights and Sustainable Solutions in a Changing World This is the name of the next topic of the IV Samarkand Forum on Human Rights, a traditional international conference to be held in our country on June 13-14, 2024. It is planned to hold three plenary meetings offline and online within the framework of the forum.
The main goal of this year's Samarkand forum is to discuss issues related to the impact of climate change on human rights on a broad scale and on the basis of information analysis. In addition to gaining the necessary knowledge in this field, the participants of the international conference will have the opportunity to exchange experience and get acquainted with the best practices within the international community.
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- Wednesday, 12 June 2024, 23:09
Representative of Uzbekistan elected to UN Human Rights Committee for the first time in history On May 29, at the UN headquarters in New York, during the 40th session of the states parties to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), elections were held for nine members of the Human Rights Committee (HRC) for the 2025-2028 term.
Representatives from 16 states, including Burundi, Georgia, Egypt, India, Spain, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Lithuania, Morocco, Paraguay, the Republic of Korea, North Macedonia, Togo, Uzbekistan, Croatia, Ethiopia, and South Africa, competed for the nine seats in the HRC.
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- Monday, 3 June 2024, 22:30
Tashkent will host the first meeting of Central Asia Regional Expert Council in Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Returnees Tashkent/New York/Vienna, May 10, 2024.
On May 14 this year, the first meeting of Central Asia Regional Expert Council in Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Returnees from armed conflict zones will be held in Tashkent.
The Regional Expert Council is being established on the initiative of the President of Uzbekistan, Mr. Shavkat Mirziyoyev, put forward in March 2022 in Tashkent at the high-level conference “Regional cooperation of the countries of Central Asia under the Joint Action Plan for the implementation UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy” and supported by international partners.
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- Friday, 10 May 2024, 20:23
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