Introduction In March, the yuan became the most widely used currency by China in cross-border payments, surpassing the U.S. dollar for the first time (Guancha, April 27). This rising usage of China’s currency has coincided with the government’s renewed push for “Renminbi (RMB) internationalization” (人民币国际化).... MORE

Introduction At a trilateral meeting in Islamabad on May 9, the foreign ministers of China, Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) into Afghanistan and reaffirmed their support for multilateral infrastructure projects already underway, including the Central Asia-South Asia (CASA) power... MORE

Introduction Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic over three years ago, both cross-Strait and U.S.-China relations have greatly worsened, reaching a post-1979 nadir. This deterioration has coincided with a broad push by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to “struggle” (奋斗) with the U.S. and... MORE

As the European Union prepares to deliver its 11th set of sanctions against Russia, the Central Asian states cautiously await the details of this next round of measures. On May 10, it was reported that the new EU package will target companies from third-party countries... MORE

For most of its just over 30 years of independence, Turkmenistan has been left out of discussions on Central Asia and the role of both north-south and east-west transportation routes linking that region to the rest of the world. Ashgabat seldom released much information about... MORE

In recent months, traditionally isolationist Turkmenistan has begun to make efforts to open up more to the outside world. As a result, intense competition has ensued among key actors, including Russia, China and the United States, for access to Turkmenistan’s transportation routes and energy resources... MORE

On April 14, the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) shot at a small plane that was landing at an airstrip in Intan Jaya Regency in Indonesia’s restive Papuan provinces (Twitter/@udayxSEA, April 14). [1] The TPNPB asserted that it would continue to target aircraft and... MORE

On May 11, Turkish opposition candidate Muharren Ince announced that he was dropping out of the upcoming presidential elections, allegedly due to, in his words, a “smear campaign” that is “the work of the Gülenist Terror Group” (Daily Sabah, May 11). As one of four... MORE

As Turkmenistan has been closed off from the rest of the world for most of the period since 1991 and as Ashgabat’s commitment to neutrality has meant that it is not a participant in many multilateral forums, Turkmenistan frequently has been ignored in discussions about... MORE

Repeated reports alleging the growing desire of the West to push Ukraine into peace talks with Russia provide an opportunity to consider how such talks would actually play out (Nezavisimaya gazeta, November 24, 2022; Mk.ru, April 25). The main question here is: What is the... MORE