China is increasingly interested in railway construction in the former Soviet Central Asian states as a land alternative to maritime transit for shipping high-value, low-volume products such as electronics to European markets. If all goes according to plan, in May 2014 the final technical decisions... MORE

Amid an ongoing domestic political scandal, Uzbekistan may face another wave of investment capital flight. On January 2, British-Canadian Tethys Petroleum announced its decision to leave Uzbekistan and focus on projects in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. Tethys Petroleum is a public company listed on the Toronto... MORE

As 2013 came to a close, China and Russia continued to be Uzbekistan’s most important partners: China as the country’s biggest investor, and Russia as its largest trade partner. However, last year’s signing of the Agreement on Strategic Partnership between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan made Astana... MORE

As 2013 came to an end, the economy of Uzbekistan reportedly finished strong. Industrial manufacturing output and exports saw a boost. Moreover, the Oliy Majlis, the parliament of Uzbekistan, approved a program to create nearly a million places of work in 2014. In his Constitution... MORE

In October 2013, Russian authorities reportedly thwarted a possible attack by militant extremists against the Maradykovo chemical weapons (CW) storage and elimination facility in the Middle Volga region of Kirov. The authorities stated that two young males from the North Caucasus allegedly had bomb components... MORE

Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan suffered from serious bilateral tensions in the first decade after both Central Asian republics had gained their independence. But following the election of Turkmenistan’s new president, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, personal relations between the two countries’ heads of state visibly improved. A complex series... MORE

The CASA-1000 project is confidently moving forward (see EDM, October 7) and the construction work, although a little delayed, reportedly will start in 2014 (https://www.regnum.ru/news/fd-abroad/polit/1708783.html). CASA-1000 is a large-scale proposed series of hydroelectric dams and power generation sites in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan that would be... MORE

During the first week of October 2013, a high-level delegation of India’s Department of Atomic Energy visited Uzbekistan to discuss bilateral cooperation in the field of nuclear energy. According to several informal reports published in the Indian media, New Delhi expects to sign a four-year... MORE

In an unexpected move, Uzbekistan signed an agreement on joining the Russia-driven Free Trade Zone (FTZ) of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) on May 31, 2013. The agreement, seen as a precursor to more serious regional integration, such as joining the Customs Union and... MORE

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