From September 7 to September 10, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan led a delegation of senior government officials and business leaders to hold the Fourth UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue. This trip is just one of the many high profile visits Chinese central leadership have... MORE

Kazakhstan and Italy are developing a major strategic partnership that is rapidly altering ties between the two countries. For Italy, one of the main and constant aims of Italian foreign policy – regardless of the political orientation of its government – is to guarantee the... MORE

Bishkek and Beijing may soon sign a long-anticipated agreement on the construction of the “China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan” railroad. Kyrgyz Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev will travel to China to discuss the project’s details. The Kyrgyz government considers the railroad to be an important component in the country’s economic... MORE

On August 24, the head of Kazakhstan’s national nuclear monopoly Kazatomprom announced plans to increase its uranium fuel pellet shipments to China by one hundredfold,  from 2 metric tons this year to 200 metric tons in 2013 or 2014 (Bloomberg, August 22). This is welcome... MORE

The Russian government plans to privatize a number of its state-owned companies, focusing on the energy and commodity sectors. However, the cabinet faces a challenging task to prove that the latest privatization efforts will be more efficient than earlier controversial moves to sell-off state-owned assets.Russia’s... MORE

The volatile turbulence that battered the world economy last week should have passed Russia by, but it did not. Indeed, Russia is not burdened by a massive debt, is spared political feuds about budget cuts and is not even exposed to the looming Greek default;... MORE

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit at Astana on June 15, 2011 signalled Asia’s regional security order is slowly shifting as Afghanistan appears to be angling to become a new observer member in this decade-old Central Asian body (Ria Novosti, May 16). The Sino-Afghan relationship... MORE

On August 2, 2011 Uzbekistan closed the Divayram border crossing, located in Sokh enclave inside Kyrgyzstan. An important road artery for Kyrgyzstan’s Batken region passes through this enclave. Now, Kyrgyz are forced to bypass the enclave, adding 30 minutes or 40 kilometers to their journey,... MORE

Moscow is piling the heat on Minsk and Kyiv to subordinate their economies, notably their energy sectors, to Russia and with that accept Russia’s political tutelage. In both cases, Moscow is using the instruments of its gas and its customs union (EurAsEc). EurAsEc has lent... MORE

July 1 marked the launch of the now “fully operational” Customs Union (Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia) fueling debate on the future of the post-Soviet space and even the grouping itself. Indeed, ruptures have already revealed themselves among existing members (such as the recent “tariff wars”... MORE