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Eurasia
December 1, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 20
This will be followed by the second stage comprising field development, geological exploration, the construction of a gas conversion facility and a gas chemical complex to produce high added-value products.
“[The gas field] will become a raw material base for the gas chemical complex in the Surkhandarya
New Kyrgyz president affirms allegiance
to Russia
Kanat Shaku in Almaty
Newly inaugurated Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov has declared that Russia is Kyrgyzstan's "main strategic partner", although he also noted that during his six-year term his country would try to balance ties with Moscow, China and the European Union. He made the comments in a November 27 interview with Russia's TASS news agency.
Jeenbekov, who on November 29 flew to Moscow for talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, was sworn in five days ago. He replaced former President Almazbek Atambayev in what marked the first peaceful transfer of power from one democratically elected leader to another
in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan, often hailed as an island of democracy in the region, has this century toppled two autocratic regimes – one in 2005
and another in 2010 – and has since only
had one interim president and democratically elected Atambayev as its leader. Nevertheless, the transfer of power hints at an emerging dominant party system in the country.
region,” the statement added. The complex will produce polyethylene, polypropylene and sulphur. In future, gas conversion is expected to deepen to produce olefins (ethylene glycol, rubber, polyethylene terephthalate and other products).
The project will have a 35-year time frame, the statement added.
Sooronbai Jeebekov is greeted on arrival in Russia where he flew on November 29 for his first talks with Vladimir Putin as president of Kyrgyzstan.
"We intend to deepen our allied relations with Russia, our main strategic partner, and China remains our important strategic and trade partner," Jeenbekov said. "We surely [will] continue developing our cooperation with our European partners, especially in such issues as supporting parliament and developing the Open Society programme."
Though Jeenbekov did not bring up the ongoing Kyrgyz-Kazakh border dispute, he mentioned that Bishkek intends to strengthen "neighbourly" relations with other Central Asian countries "based on the principle of mutual respect and non-interference in each other's internal affairs". That reference appeared to refer to accusations that Astana tried to meddle in Kyrgyzstan’s presidential election by granting an audience with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev to Jeenbekov’s main challenger in the presidential election, ex-PM Omurbek Babanov. In the wake of that meeting, Nazarbayev’s press office issued a statement giving the impression that it was an