The government of Kazakhstan is considering imposing severe penalties on the company or companies responsible for cost overruns and production delays at the supergiant Kashagan offshore oilfield. Deemed the largest oil discovery worldwide in the last 35-40 years, Kashagan is estimated to hold almost 2... MORE

Kazakhstan’s leaders have sought Moscow’s help to reduce crimes with security implications, such as membership in extremist groups or drug trafficking. On July 30, for example, Kazakhstan’s Interior Ministry and the Russian Federal Service for Drug Control signed an agreement to cooperate in combating the... MORE

A shared opposition to the constant stream of drugs flowing from the poppy fields in Afghanistan is apparently one of the few remaining areas of cooperation between Kazakhstan and Russia. Since Russia handed over responsibility for protecting the troubled Tajik-Afghan border to poorly equipped and... MORE

The December 21, 2006, death of Turkmenistan’s self proclaimed president-for-life Saparmurat Niyazov set off an intense round of speculation about both the succession process and who might gain access to the world’s fifth-largest energy reserves, responsible for more than $2 billion annually in export revenues.... MORE

Japan was the first Asian country to get actively involved in the Central Asian region following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Besides opening embassies in all of the Central Asian states, Japan has also sought to establish economic ties and implement cultural and educational... MORE

Radical groups operating within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states will be placed on a new, common list of banned organizations. On July 24 Toygonbek Kalmatov, from the Kyrgyz government agency for religious, confirmed that SCO representatives recently held a closed meeting in order to... MORE

On July 17 Tajikistan’s Ministry of Defense announced plans to allow Russian combat aircraft to be deployed in Dushanbe. The agreement involves the aviation support component of the Russian 201st Motor Rifle Division based in Tajikistan and will result in Russian combat aircraft being quartered... MORE

Last month Kyrgyz opposition leader Melis Eshimkanov was nominated to become Kyrgyzstan’s ambassador to Switzerland. Eshimkanov is a member of the “For Reforms” parliamentary opposition bloc, which promotes long-term political changes in Kyrgyzstan. Despite widespread criticism in political circles for giving up the fight for... MORE

On July 17 in Beijing, the Turkmen and Chinese governments signed grandiose-looking agreements on gas field development in Turkmenistan and gas sales to China. Presidents Hu Jintao and Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov -- on his first visit to China since becoming president in February -- witnessed the... MORE

On July 9 the Shanghai Cooperation Organization council of foreign ministers met in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, to finalize the agenda for the forthcoming SCO summit in August. Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Ednan Karabayev commented afterward that the summit will focus on developing the work of the SCO-Afghanistan... MORE