Via The Jamestown Foundation, a report on how the fate of China’s rail line to Uzbekistan will likely be decided in Kyrgyzstan: As a part of its Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese plans to construct a railway from Xinjiang through Kyrgyzstan to Uzbekistan and onward to Turkmenistan has been under discussion for two decades. If realized, […]
Read more »Via the Asia Times, an article on BRI activity in Central Asia: The information war is so intense nowadays that unsung melodies are often more alluring than the sung ones. The lines from English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley’s famous ode To a Skylark come to mind: “In the broad day-light / Thou art unseen, but yet I […]
Read more »Via The Frontier Post, an article on the exploration of trans-Afghan railway: Uzbekistan and the Taliban movement (recognized as terrorist and banned in many countries) will soon hold talks in the Uzbek city of Termez on the construction of the Termez-Mazar-i-Sharif-Kabul-Peshawar railway. This was reported by the press service of the Uzbek Foreign Ministry following […]
Read more »Courtesy of The Financial Times, an article on how Uzbekistan’s booming population is fueling its ambitions to become Central Asia’s biggest economy: Just five years ago, Uzbekistan’s economy was not ready for investment. Today, economic growth has attracted investors from across the world. One problem was currency. In 2016, those with a few dollars to […]
Read more »Via Eurasia Review, an article on how Central Asia producers may help solve China’s gas shortage: China’s growing demand for natural gas has been driving closer engagement with Turkmenistan, renewing questions about Russia’s role in Central Asia, once regarded as Moscow’s backyard. Soaring gas prices appear to be the main motivator behind China’s agreement to […]
Read more »Via Geopolitical Futures, commentary on Uzbekistan in light of the U.S. decision to withdraw from Afghanistan: In our 2019 Annual Forecast, we said we expected Uzbekistan to challenge Kazakhstan as the dominant power in Central Asia. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed any progress toward that end, but now that the world seems to be getting past the […]
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