A joint declaration on strategic partnership was among several agreements that were signed following talks in Bishkek between visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Kyrgyz Republic counterpart, Almazbek Atambaev, on September 11. Atambaev told reporters that the signed documents also include agreements on Chinese... MORE

Mongolian Prime Minister Norov Altankhuyag’s September 11–14, 2013 trip to Japan, his first overseas visit since becoming head of government in 2012, underscored the new vibrancy in Mongolian-Japanese relations. This visit reciprocated the very successful one of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Ulaanbaatar in... MORE

Kazakhstan is considering adopting measures to modernize its security structures, though somewhat surprisingly this has nothing to do with Astana’s assessment of a possible impact on Central Asian security stemming from the drawdown of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from Afghanistan. The reasons for... MORE

On September 25, the deputy chairman of Kazakhstan’s national space agency Kazkosmos, Erkin Shaimagambetov, officially announced his administration’s decision to allow Russia to carry out a new launch of its Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on September 30. The following day, Kazakhstan’s Environment Protection... MORE

At a summit in Sochi, on Monday, September 23, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned leaders of the six-nation Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) that Islamist militancy, such as that fueling the war in Syria, could reach their countries, particularly those with Muslim majorities. He pointed... MORE

This week (September 23), the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), held a summit in President Vladimir Putin’s Black Sea residence in Sochi. The Russian-led military alliance is made up of several post-Soviet republics—Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. Russia’s allies supported Moscow’s stand on... MORE

On September 10, a coalition of Tajikistani opposition parties called the “Union of Reformist Forces” officially nominated Oinikhol Bobonazarova to oppose incumbent Emomalii Rahmon in the November 6 presidential elections (Tojnews, September 10). The coalition consists of Tajikistan’s two most influential opposition parties: the Socialist... MORE

The international consortium developing Kazakhstan’s super-giant offshore oilfield Kashagan is now on course to start commercial production by October 1, the final deadline set by Kazakhstan’s government. Meeting that deadline will enable the consortium to avoid financial penalties that the government could have imposed in... MORE

On August 20, Chinese authorities shot dead at least 16 ethnic Uighurs in a desert area of the Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), accusing them of terrorism and illegal religious activity. They were among a group of more than 20 Uighurs surrounded and fired upon by... MORE

On September 13, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held its 13th session of the Council of Heads of State, in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in a bid to strengthen cooperation on pressing security and economic challenges. The parties signed the Bishkek Declaration, calling for a joint struggle... MORE