Asia Infrastructure
Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan & China: When is a done deal really done?
Railway construction agreement doesn’t answer all the questions, especially about financing.
Forget oil, forget gas. Kyrgyzstan has plans to power Central Asia with water
Upstream nation sets out to become a regional energy hub based on hydro. The battle to find billions in funding has begun.
Kyrgyzstan sets itself a herculean hydro task in massive energy reform
At special forum in Vienna, ministers present financial institutions with ambitious projects that could power growth across Central Asia.
PANNIER: Russia is pushing Turkmenistan out of the natural gas market
Moscow’s moves to take over Central Asian pipeline capacity for deliveries to China might explain unusual urgency in the Turkmen search for new customers.
New plan for getting Turkmen gas to Europe – pipe it to Pakistan and ship it as LNG
Pakistani petroleum minister outlines proposal at energy symposium. Says TAPI pipeline could be completed solely with Islamabad and Ashgabat funding.
Transit fee rivals Russia, Kazakhstan “happy” China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway not progressing
Beijing appears deterred by cost and geopolitical considerations, but if realised “CKU” would open up shortest China-Europe rail route.
Hungarian government hails Xi’s visit as of historic importance
China and Hungary elevated ties to a comprehensive "all-weather" strategic partnership.
New India-Europe transit corridor set to challenge IMEC, Suez routes
The battle of the corridors is heating up as India promotes a new India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) route that will connect the subcontinent with Europe by traversing the Middle East over land then sea to the EU via Haifa in Israel.
Turkey, Iraq, Qatar and UAE ink initial Development Road transit corridor agreement
Route competing with rival India-Middle East-Europe option. Ankara wants Baghdad to commit to stamping out Kurdish PKK militants said to threaten project security.
How Kazakhstan leveraged “uranium power” to hold reins in nuclear fuel dealings with China
Researcher says Kazakhstan is no mere “node in Beijing’s transregional geoeconomic strategy”. Such thinking obscures Chinese actors’ adaptive approach to local interests and overlooks gains Kazakhstani actors “skillfully extracted”.
PANNIER: Gulf investment commitments to Central Asia rival sums once pledged by China
Since Russia lost leverage in the region after invading Ukraine, many countries have sought to fill the gap. In terms of pledged capital, the Arab nations have become big players.