NABUCCO GAS PIPELINE AGREEMENT TO BE SIGNED

EU nations will put pen to paper in Turkey on the finalizing of the agreement towards the commencement of the US backed Nabucco gas pipeline.

The pipeline has been conceived over a long period of time but the need to hasten the process was warranted after Russia had shut off its gas supply to Europe that passes via Ukraine. EU to an extent was at the recieving end and had felt the harsh consequence of Russia wrath towards Ukraine.

Suffice it to say that the Nabucco gas pipeline is a worthy project because it allows for more gas supply into the global market. But Russia who is a major player in the region will not fold its arms without influencing the impact of the project. Just recent, Russia had agreed to buy a large part of the Azerbaijan oil and gas and to involve Azerbaijan in another pipeline alternative that passes from Russia to Italy.

Azerbaijan despite rich with oil and gas deposit is not a part of the major supplies through the Nabucco pipeline. The supplying nations will be Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. The Azerbaijan oil minister has recently expressed willingness of Azerbaijan to join in the supplying nation while the Turkey minister is pushing for Iran to be included.

The major signees in the agreement are Bulgaria, Austria, Hungary, Romania and Turkey. The 3,300km pipe will carry gas directly to Austria by passing Russia. The project is expected to become fully operation by 2014 and is estimated to cost about 10.6 Billion USD.

TWO INFLUENTIAL FIRST LADIES - MEHRIBAN ALIYEVA AND ASMA-AL-ASAD

The Syrian president is visiting Azerbaijan with his wife as guests to the Azerbaijan president Iham Aliyev and his wife -Mehriban Aliyeva. Mr. Bashir al-Assad with his wife Mrs. Asma-al-Asad and their entourage will be in Azerbaijan for a 2 days working visit.

Both Iham Aliyev and Bashir al-Assad have got prominent women by their sides who are re-defining women of the East. In a wider perspective, both are good advocate in the promotion of the role of Islamic women in politics. Besides involvement in politics, both women had already to their credentials successful career paths; Mrs. Aliyeva is a qualified medical doctor, while it is well known that Mrs. al-Asad was born, bred and educated in London.

Yes, both first ladies are very beautiful. But that is only an added characteristic to the influence and power Mrs. Mehriban Aliyeva and her counterpart Mrs. Asma-al-Asad command in their respective countries. Both first ladies champion various courses in their various nations. Mehriban Aliyeva is the UNESCO representative for Azerbaijan, she is the president of the Heydar Aliyev fund and she is also a parliamentarian; while Asma-al-Asad is an advocate for various rights, including rights for Syrian women. Another correlated action with both first ladies is that they are both spokesperson for the Islamic agenda of their respective nation.

Comparing the Baku meeting of the first ladies to the global attention that Michelle and Carla Bruni the spouses of the US president, Barack Obama and the French president, Nicholas Sarkozy, Mehriban and Asma may not have attracted that magnitude of global attention as they stood side by side, but one thing is certain is that their role in the political spheres of this part of the globe is of noteworthy.

RUSSIA STRATEGICALLY EXPANDS ITS ENERGY STRENGTHS

Early this year in the peak of winter, Russia had closed its flow of gas passing into Europe from Ukraine. The temporary closure saw most part of Europe without gas, despite the severe winter that Europe was experiencing at that period in time.

Gazprom, the national oil and gas Company of Russia federation is a big player in the energy industry globally; but particular its influence in the determination of the energy market prospects of its immediate competitors, for example the Azerbaijan national oil and gas Company called SOCAR is well-known. The EU national had thought out Azerbaijan as an alternative to the Russia energy, which of course it is a good move because of the vast deposit Azerbaijan has got over the Caspian basins. However, the EU is not forth coming with a strong intent towards engaging the Azerbaijan government in formidable partnership. There are various pipelines proposed to be laid from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan into the wider community market but all these ventures are in one way or the other undermined by Russia influence.

The Russia strategy that was in display this week as they signed a gas agreement with Azerbaijan is one of good foresight and strategy. Despite the independence of Azerbaijan from the Soviet Russia, Russia continues to wedge a strong influence in its former republics. Same is also observable in the other republics in proximity with Russia with probably the exception of Georgia.

Russia expansion is not just in the region Caucasus. The recent visit of Mr. Dimitir Medvedev to some selected Africa nations including Nigeria with one of the world highest deposit of oil and gas; Russia friendliness with Iran; the positive advances of Kremlin towards Venezuela; all these are signals that Russia is strategizing globally to become a force in terms of energy. Categorically, with moves such as the gas agreement with Azerbaijan, Russia is fully placed to influence most policies that will come out from the Caucasus because the EU had dragged its feet over the years.

As nations continue to depend on each other in the absent of energy independence, Russia will one day hold a vital key to greatly influence global matters. In the event of the spat between Russia and Ukraine, there was little the world community particularly EU could do to convince Russia to re-consider in its action on closing its gas pipes. Instead, what was observable was that Russia held the directives and could detect the conditions.

UPDATED: VOTE ON NGO BILL LIVES TO SEE ANOTHER DAY!

The Azerbaijan parliament is proposing a bill to regulate the NGO sector of the nations. If the bill is passed, new laws will be put in place that many have presumed as a means to curtail civil society activity in Azerbaijan.

Some of the new laws in the proposed bill include that: NGOs are required to limit their funds from abroad to about 50% of total finical requirements; foreigners will be prohibited from creating NGOs; any NGO found in violating the new rules will be penalized with outright ban or in some cases years of prohibited operations.

A lot of International NGO operates in Azerbaijan and most enjoy a considerable degree of support from the national government. The government support for civil society over the years had also encouraged various national NGOs to spring up. The positive development in the sector was reflected in the summer report of 2009 by the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC).

Update: A bill has recently been passed in the Assembly based on NGO reforms. But the strict measures in the initial bill for operation of NGO was entirely jetisoned due to pressure exactly on paliarmentaries from various quarters including extablished INGO and civil society groups.