DUSHANBE, January 26, 2009, Asia-Plus — Moscow should influence Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in solving the water problem in Central Asia, Uzbek President Islam Karimov remarked at a press conference in Tashkent on January 23, following Uzbek-Russian negotiations, according to Russia’s Vesti.ru.
“This issue has been discussed for a long time and I would say that it has been savored at different levels. I mean the West first of all. And those great powers that hope to have access to regulation of water resources of cross-border rivers through solution of this task are interested in this issue. Today, more than 50 million people now depend on how this issue will be solved,” the Uzbek president was quoted as saying.
According to Vesti.ru, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev gave to understand that it was not bilateral but multilateral issue.
“Hydropower plants in Central Asia should be built with the regard to the interests of all neighboring countries as well as in compliance with international law on use of waters of the cross-border rivers,” the news agency REGNUM quoted the Russian head of state saying at the press conference in Tashkent.
Otherwise, they will have to solve problems arising not in economic but political terms, the Russian president said. In his opinion, all the interested sides should discuss and solve the issue jointly. Medvedev added that if there is no a common agreement of all sides, Russia will refrain from participating in such projects.
According to RFE/RL, Uzbekistan has pledged to support a new trans-Russian gas pipeline, easing Moscow”s fears it would succumb to European pressure to bypass Russia with its energy supplies and reduce its influence in the region. Karimov told Medvedev that Uzbekistan had offered to sell 16 billion cubic meters of gas to Russia this year and could double that amount within the next decade. “We are ready to work with Russia on the construction of new pipelines that would enable us to boost exports and transit of gas,” Karimov told reporters in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent.
