Last year saw a number of significant developments in China-Kazakhstan relations, including two official visits to China by Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, multi-billion dollar contracts, the promotion of transport and infrastructure initiatives, and an unprecedented 30 per cent growth in bilateral trade. Kazakhstan accounts for half of China’s trade and investment in the region, with trade turnover between Kazakhstan and China reaching an impressive $31 billion. By 2023, the volume of cargo between the two countries will have increased by 22 per cent to nearly 30 million tonnes…

On December 28, 2023, the head of Kyrgyzstan’s National Investment Agency announced that the construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railroad – which is to form an important element of a planned Eurasian rail corridor – will begin in 2024. This announcement appears to signal the beginning of a new stage in the implementation of the project, which was initially proposed by the participating countries back in the 1990s, and which will have an important significance for the whole of Eurasia due…

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s meeting with ASEAN in mid-July, focused on convincing the bloc to confront Beijing, follows a long-running US strategy to transform Southeast Asia into a united front against China. By doing so, nations in the region are encouraged or coerced to antagonize China, despite the growing superpower being their largest trade partner, investor, and source of tourism as well as their most important infrastructure and development partner. Reuters in its article preceding the meeting titled, “Blinken to press ASEAN to take…

At this point in the “Great World Game,” everything that is happening in Central and South Asia (CSA) is playing an increasingly important role. CSA here will mean a vast territory, with at least a dozen countries located on it today. From Kazakhstan in the north to Sri Lanka in the south and from Nepal in the east to Iran in the west. All of them differ sharply from each other in the size of the territories, the population, the level of economic development and, consequently, the significance in the very “game.”…

The desire of Russia, along with China and its friendly countries, to implement the international integration project for Greater Eurasia’s development, which involves the EAEU’s cooperation with the SCO, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and, until recently, the European Union, has recently caused increasing rejection by the US and its Western allies. In response to these steps dictated by modern world history, Washington has deployed its aggressive strategy of maintaining global dominance, which is a multi-stage process…