The Russian daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta carried a report on the eve of the China-Central Asia summit at Xi’an titled “China is changing the format of cooperation with Central Asia.” It anticipated that the six heads of state gathering in Xi’an on May 18-19 would be discussing the “creation of a new mechanism for cooperation in…
The larger context within which Kyrgyzstan’s latest law enforcement operation was carried out suggests that this foiled regime change plot was less about irreconcilable clan rivalries and much more about the US trying to make problems for Russia. Kyrgyzstan confirmed on Tuesday that it arrested over 30 people accused of plotting a violent coup attempt…
One of the pleasures of the post-Cold War strategic discourses is that geopolitics is back with a bang. Earlier, the former Soviet Union and Communist China used to be in denial mode, as geopolitics didn’t fit into their Marxist-Leninist lens — although, arguably, Marx might have adapted himself a long time ago already. The China-Central…
Cue to the China-Central Asia summit last week in Xian, the former imperial capital, where Xi solidified the expansion of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) from Western China in Xinjiang to its western neighbors and then all the way to Iran, Turkey and Eastern Europe. Xi in Xian particularly stressed the complementing aspects between…
Chaired by President Xi Jinping, the China-Central Asia Summit invites the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan to gather and attend the meeting in the historic city of Xi’an, China on 18 and 19 May. As the first major diplomatic event hosted by China this year, and the first in-person summit between China…
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…
