Central Asia

Japan sets US$19 billion business target in Central Asia

JAPAN unveiled a five-year goal on Saturday for business projects totalling US$19 billion in Central Asia as Tokyo vies for influence in the resource-rich region.

Above: a woman picks walnuts in the walnut forest of Kyrgysztan. Human activities, such as herding cattle and illegal logging, have thinned out the area.

In Kyrgyzstan, world’s largest natural walnut forest thins away

The forest is affected by the overgrazing of livestock, illegal logging and rising temperatures

The Chinese leader is visiting Kazakhstan for the third time since 2020.

Xi takes push for global sway to Central Asia with Kazakhstan visit

China has sought to counter the US-led global order – a goal it shares with Russia – in part by courting the Global South

Kazakhstan’s leading trade and investment partner is the EU, with bilateral trade reaching around 50 billion euros.

World powers focus on resource-rich Central Asia

HALFORD MacKinder, a founding father of geopolitics, claimed more than a century ago that the country which controls Central Asia and neighbouring nations shall be the “empire of the world”.