A Little Bit of This, and a Little bit of Ahmadinejad?
Here is a Friday Link Laydown of hopefully some informative and interesting items:
A. Iranian President Ahmadinejad recent visit to India is analyzed with a geopolitical mindset by MK Bhadrakumar, a former Indian diplomat. India and Iran’s postures and interests in Central Asia are discussed, as is the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Bhadrakumar gives a fresh Indian perspective of Central Asia, Iran, and the SCO and is quite critical of US foreign policy.
B. Kazakhstan’s vice minister of foreign affairs Nurlan Ermekbayev just had talks with the US State Department and National Security Council in Washington DC. Deepening bilateral cooperation and enforcing global and regional security were apparently hot topics of discussion. My apologies for the tiny size of the report.
C. Yet another report about declining press freedom in the world. The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) reports in their half-year review that 28 journalists have been killed so far and that corrupt and autocratic governments putting press freedom under ’serious threat.’ Central Asia is mentioned multiple times and it’s not good news.
D. Here, and right here, are a couple articles about South Korea’s diplomatic and strategic efforts to court CA states. Prime Minister Han Seung-soo and the South Koreans mainly seek energy supplies for their nation, which must be remembered has Asia’s third largest economy.
E-Z. China and five CA states summited their first national lists of Silk Road treasures/artifacts in a joint application to World Cultural Heritage. China nominated 48 sites, Kazak 10, Kyrg 7, Tajik 8, Turkmenistan 57, and Uzbek 33.
Have a great weekend!