Friday, March 4, 2011

Central Asian and Eurasian news this week

President Hu Jintao accepted the invitation of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev to visit Astana upon the jubilee SCO summit, which will be held on June 15 this year. In a joint communique the two sides praised the contribution of the SCO to the development of member states of the Organization as well as to security and stability in the region. The Chinese side highly appreciated the contribution of the Kazakh side to strengthening cooperation during its Presidency of the SCO. Meanwhile, Nazarbayev said February 23 that Kazakhstan could supply 40% of China's nuclear fuel needs. China is building 19 nuclear power station blocks and is planning 25 more, Nazarbayev said, adding that Kazakhstan could make tens of billions of dollars by supplying uranium to China.

At the same time, Turkmenistan has agreed to boost its future natural gas deliveries to China by 20 billion cubic meters. Turkmenistan began delivering gas to China in a newly-completed pipeline in late 2009, but that route is only expected to reach full annual capacity of 40 billion cubic meters in 2012. Government newspaper Neutral Turkmenistan reported Wednesday that President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov will visit China later this year to formalize the deal. New pipelines will need to be built to increase deliveries to 60 billion cubic meters. China's turning to Turkmenistan is to some extent resulted from Gazprom's delay in agreement on prices and pipeline routes with Asia’s fastest-growing market. In 2009, Gazprom said plans to deliver gas to China would be delayed to 2014 or 2015 from this year as the sides failed to reach a consensus on price and volume. The company aims to close a deal by July to supply 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year for 30 years starting in 2015, via the Altai region to China’s northwestern border. Supplies of as much as 40 billion from an eastern route near Russia’s Pacific coast may come at a later date, according to Gazprom.

On Mar.5th, China opened its annual parliamentary session. Nearly 3,000 National People's Congress (NPC) deputies from across the country, and more than 2,000 members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the top political advisory body, are present in the Great Hall of the People at the opening meeting of the Fourth Session of the 11th NPC. Several long documents from Premier Wen Jiabao, the Finance Ministry and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) were released. While these reports are dry and full of bureaucratic and political jargon, they also offer a comprehensive view of the government’s assessment of the economy, and its plans for this year. Links are below. Among the issues two became the center of the West's attention: the government of China announced Friday that it plans to increase its defense budget by 12.7%, and plans to announce strict five-year goals for energy conservation in the next two weeks.

On the Russia side, according to Moscow Reuters's report, Russia is turning military gaze east to counter China. "Russia is still an Asia-Pacific power," said Pavel Baev of the Peace Research Institute Oslo. "Moscow's plans are definitely a signal to China that Russia takes this area seriously." "They're still worried that China will invade Siberia one day because of the resources," Dmitry Gorenburg, a senior analyst at military and public sector think tank CNA, said in an interview last month.


Articles referred to in this post:

"Президент Назарбаев пригласил главу КНР посетить с визитом Казахстан" (President Nazarbayev invited president Hu to visit Kazakhstan)

"Казахстан может поставлять до 40% ядерного топлива в Китай" (Kazakhstan could supply 40% of China's nuclear fuel)

"Туркмения увеличит поставки природного газа в Китай на 20 миллиардов кубометров в год" (Turkmenistan to increase natural gas supplies to China by 20 billion cubic meters per year)

"Пока Газпром раскачивается, Китай подумывает о газе в Туркмении" (While Gazprom swings, China is considering gas in Turkmenistan)

"China NPC 2011: The Reports"

"Report: China to raise defense budget in 2011"

"China Reportedly Plans Strict Goals to Save Energy"

"Russia turns military gaze east to counter China"

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