Domestic Politics
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, in an address to his people for the Nowruz holiday, openly threatened to isolate the country’s political opposition with a state of emergency, claiming that “provocation” from the “fifth column” was impeding the country’s decisive coronavirus response efforts. [Atlantic Council]
International Relations
Russia postponed the Russia-India-China trilateral summit that was set to be held next week in Sochi amid coronavirus concerns. [The Eurasian Times]
On Thursday, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko urged his government to help Russians stranded in Poland return home. He emphasized that shutting borders to curb the spread of the coronavirus does not adequately address the problem and instead creates obstacles for people returning home. [BelTA]
The United States government halted funding for the removal of land mines in the contested Nagorno-Karabakh territory, the largest American-aided programme in the area. The programme, which was heavily supported by Armenians and was an irritant for the Azerbaijanis, has been defunded to redirect resources to issues of ‘higher priority’. [Eurasianet]
Kuwait committed to providing a loan of $23.1 million to Uzbekistan by way of its Fund for Arab Economic Development to equip Uzbek medical institutions that provide urologic and haemodialysis services. [Tashkent Times]
Health
Following China’s lead, Armenian Minister of Healthcare Arsen Torosyan said on Wednesday that Yerevan’s Nork Infectious Diseases Hospital is building a new 40-room ward to house coronavirus patients. It is expected to be ready by the weekend. [Armenpress]
As per the World Health Organization’s (WHO) situation report on 19 March, the total numbers of coronavirus cases in the Central Asian region are as follows–Armenia: 84, Belarus: 46, Georgia 38, Kazakhstan: 36, Azerbaijan: 34, Uzbekistan: 16, Kyrgyzstan: 3
Energy
Azerbaijan’s state oil company, SOCAR, on Thursday said that an oil field in the Caspian Sea, some 100 kilometres offshore Karabagh, holds more than 60 million tonnes of crude oil and may be commercially viable to mine, offering a ray of hope to the country as its oil-based economy suffers tremendously under international pricing shocks. [SOCAR]
Image Source: Asia Times
