Immigration, but above all gas on the agenda for ex Soviet states
Dushanbe (AsiaNews/Agenzie) – Two days of talks between leaders of the Community of Independent States are ending today in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Coordinated migration policy and improved economic cooperation, the fight against drug trafficking and military collaboration topped the agenda, but most deals were struck in side-line negotiations rather than the general discussions.
Moscow is watching the regional movement with great interest, aiming above al to clear the field of possible international rivals in the race to claims the natural energy resources. Russia wants to keep control of Turkmenistan’s’ gas reserves and in May signed a deal to create a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Europe through Kazakhstan and Russia, running along the Caspian Sea. But following this the Turkmen President Berdymukhamedov sounded his interest in a US project to build a gas pipeline passing beneath the Caspian Sea to Turkey, as well as repeatedly affirming his desire to create “multiple gas corridors”.
This also helps explain the frequent meetings between the Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Lazal President Nursultan Nazarbaev. The latter is also current president of the CSI and declared that the main aim of the meetings was “the long term project of opening a gas and oil corridor through the Caspian Sea”. The corridor’s path could extend not only to Europe but also to Iran and the Persian Gulf, for shipment towards India and China.
The CSI – which groups together 12 ex soviet nations including Russia, Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – was born from the ashes of the Soviet Union in 1991 and Moscow wants to create a stable economic collaboration and foreign policy alliance from it. But the group has gradually been losing cohesion: some central Asian states have built relations with the United Sates and China while Ukraine and Georgia aim to enter the EU.
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