Turkmenistan
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Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit comes up short on achievements
Iran left in lurch.
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COMMENT: COP17 desertification summit delivered mixed results but important momentum
Nature Conservancy’s director of biodiversity and infrastructure policy releases closing statement after Ulaanbaatar conference.
Europe is heading into winter waiting for Qatari gas that is not coming back
Europe's gas traders have spent the summer betting that the Gulf war would end in time. It has not, and the bill for that bet falls due in November.
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US effort to pressure Central Asian states on AI development falling flat
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan pushing back.
Iran and the Philippines offer Russia two very different farm-export bets
Russia's meat and feed exporters face a choice between two very different markets: Iran, slow and bureaucratic but predictable, and the Philippines, fast-growing but brutal on price.
Europe killed 25,000 of its own people this summer for want of air conditioning
Extreme heat has killed more than 25,000 people across Europe this year, according to data compiled from government agencies and research institutions in Germany, Spain, France, the UK, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
Caspian Sea water level hits 200-year low
The Caspian Sea has fallen to its lowest level in about 200 years and is still declining, a Tehran official said, blaming higher temperatures, evaporation, weaker inflows and lower rainfall for a drop of up to 20 centimetres a year.
China expanding scientific cooperation with Central Asia
China-Central Asia Monitor: July 31 – August 6.
COMMENT: Russia's fuel crisis spills into Central Asia as Moscow's backup supply dries up
Ukraine's drone campaign against Russian refineries has rocked not only Russia's own fuel market but those of Central Asia too, Carnegie Politika's Galiya Ibragimova writes, warning the region has little time to avert a full-scale shortage.
China expands its presence in Uzbekistan
China-Central Asia Monitor: July 24-30.
Ukraine less births than Kyrgyzstan this year as Central Europe's demographic crisis deepens
Ukraine is on track to record fewer births this year than Kyrgyzstan for the first time - a reversal from the end of the Soviet Union, when Ukraine's newborns outnumbered Kyrgyzstan's five to one.
Kyrgyzstan gained UN Security Council seat; now comes hard part
Bishkek’s priorities to include climate, Afghan reintegration into world order.
MACRO ADVISORY: Best Eurasia books published in 1H26
Macro-Advisory Limited has issued its annual mid-year compilation of the best business, political and general interest books published in 1H26, covering the twelve states in the Eurasia region plus Iran and Afghanistan.
Turkmen elites still “robbing” poor with official exchange rate trailing black market sixfold, say critics
Wage billed as worth $1,000 actually worth only $150 to ordinary citizen.
Geopolitical shocks, climate risks leave millions unable to afford healthy diets in Europe, Central Asia
Climate change, water scarcity, geopolitical tensions and volatile markets are creating new vulnerabilities that threaten both agricultural production and consumer access to nutritious food, says new FAO report.
PANNIER: Afghan groups battle Taliban near Tajik border
If Afghanistan’s rulers lose control of Badakhshan province, route to Chinese border will be blocked and calculations in Central Asia’s capitals may change.
COMMENT: Central Asia's talk of decolonisation outruns the reality
Public discourse increasingly casts Central Asia as shedding Russian influence – through decolonisation, a pivot to China, or a push for greater sovereignty – but the reality on the ground is far messier.
CENTRAL ASIA BLOG: Unjust bureaucratic hurdles are wrecking legit UK travel dreams
Tourist visas denied based on highly subjective assessments of financial means and intentions to use “return” section of plane ticket.
Iran, China chamber officials float joint transport corridor to boost trade amid US strikes on rail network
Officials from Iran's Tehran Chamber and China's Khorgos International Chamber of Commerce have discussed a joint transport corridor to expand bilateral trade, with proposals to be drawn up into a memorandum of understanding.
Climate change, not dams, driving Caspian Sea shrinkage, researcher says
The Caspian Sea's decline owes more to climate change than to dams or river abstraction, a water policy researcher says, with the Volga's navigation-focused dams limiting draw-off and Tehran's groundwater and wastewater plans making little progress.