Holland America’s MS Westerdam has received permission to disembark passengers in Thailand.
The Westerdam has set course for Laem Chabang, where the current cruise that departed February 1 will end on Thursday, February 13. Guests will be disembarking in Laem Chabang and be transferring to Bangkok for their forward travel home.
“Despite media reports, we have no reason to believe there are any cases of coronavirus onboard,” said a company spokesperson.
Read further in Cruise Industry News.
The economies of Central Asia are slowly opening up to foreign investors after more than two decades of relative isolation. Uzbekistan just sold $1 billion of Eurobonds in its first foray into international debt markets. In doing so, it follows its neighbor Tajikistan, which issued its first bonds in 2017 to finance the construction of a dam and hydroelectric power plant.
Read further in Muftah Magazine.
Last week, the biggest public rally to date against China’s growing influence in Central Asia took place in Kyrgyzstan’s capital. On Thursday, January 17, police detained more than a dozen people assembled in Bishkek’s central Ala-Too Square, demanding a curb on work permits for Chinese nationals as well as other measures to reduce the Chinese presence in the country. Similar protests took place on January 7and on December 20, 2018, when a crowd of about 150 people gathered near the Chinese Embassy.
Read further in Muftah Magazine.
On August 12, five nations resolved a twenty-seven-year-old dispute over how to divide up the oil and gas reserves contained in the Caspian Sea. The treaty, signed in the Caspian coastal city of Aktau, Kazakhstan, ends a spat over whether the Caspian is a sea or a lake, and clarifies the maritime boundaries of the surrounding countries.
Read full article in Muftah Magazine.
Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, water has been a main source of conflict in Central Asia. A recent report by the International Crisis Group has spoken of the need to end the “weaponization of water” and emphasized the importance of technical, rather than politicized, solutions to sharing regional resources like water.
Read the full blog in Muftah magazine.
