Author: Ayana Umarov

Taliban officials have asked Uzbekistan to cancel concerts and musical programs at the joint border market in Termez. According to Atlas Press, Afghan citizens will not be allowed to enter this market if the programs continue. The recently reopened Afghanistan-Uzbekistan joint border market in Termez stages music concerts with performances by Uzbek artists but according to the publication’s sources, the Taliban have now asked the Uzbek government to discontinue such programs. To date, neither the Taliban nor Uzbek officials have officially commented on the issue and it remains unclear as to whether Uzbekistan will respond positively to the Taliban’s request. In an…

Citizens of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are warned against traveling to Russia, reportedly due to “additional security measures and enhanced border controls” imposed by the Russian government. On September 10, the Tajik embassy in Moscow advised Tajiks “to temporarily refrain from traveling to the Russian Federation unless necessary.” Similar advice was issued by Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs the same advice on September 5, in the statement: “In connection with the continuation of additional security measures introduced on the territory of Russia and the regime of enhanced control over the passage of foreign citizens across the state border, the Embassy of the Kyrgyz Republic in…

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Asian stocks inched slightly higher on Tuesday but struggled to sustain an upbeat rally on Wall Street as concerns about a faltering Chinese economy dampened the market mood. Data on Tuesday showed China’s exports grew at their fastest since March 2023 in August, suggesting manufacturers are rushing out orders ahead of tariffs expected from a number of trade partners, while imports missed forecasts amid weak domestic demand. That followed Monday’s inflation figures that pointed to still-fragile domestic demand as producer price deflation worsened, keeping alive calls for further stimulus from Beijing to shore up its economy. MSCI’s broadest…

Kyrgyzstan’s economic dependence on China is continuing to grow. Not only is Bishkek’s trade deficit with China burgeoning, but Beijing is also cementing its position as Kyrgyzstan’s main creditor. Statistics compiled by China’s General Administration of Customs show that bilateral trade turnover during the January-July period of 2024 amounted to $10.95 billion, marking a roughly 12 percent increase in trade volume during the same period the previous year. Alarmingly from Bishkek’s viewpoint, Kyrgyzstan’s exports to China accounted for a mere $226 million of that total, or roughly 2 percent of overall turnover. The Chinese figures contrast sharply with official Kyrgyz statistics, raising…

President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov received Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, Deputy Administrator of the United Nations Development Program and Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS Ivana Zivkovic on December 11, the Foreign Ministry of Turkmenistan reports. -During the meeting, the President emphasized that the development of multifaceted strategic cooperation with the UN is one of the priorities of the country’s foreign policy. It was noted that Turkmenistan put forward initiatives to ensure global socio-economic progress and prosperity, as well as achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, at the 78th session of the UN General…

Amsterdam, Berlin (16/11 – 10) Diwali, a.k.a. Deepavali, is a Hindu religious celebration as well as a traditional festival, celebrated across India. Customarily known as “The Festival of Lights”, as it is festooned with arrays of colored illumination, it is held from October to November every year. Deepavali 2023 was celebrated on November 12, over a five-day period. Deepavali is the annual Hindu celebration of the triumph of light over darkness. Rarely will you visit a Hindu home during Deepavali without passing under a doorway highlighted by a beautiful, vividly-colored picture created out of flour, rice or flower petals. It…

Azerbaijani youth represented the country at the first International Festival of Turkic-speaking Youth held in the Uzbek city of Kokand. The festival was organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Uzbekistan, the Fergana Region Administration, and the Agency for Youth Affairs of Uzbekistan in cooperation with TURKSOY. Apart from Azerbaijan, the event was also attended by young people from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Turkiye, Azernews reports, citing Uzbek media. The main goal of the festival was to increase the love of the young generation for the history and national and cultural heritage of the Turkic peoples, promote cooperation in the…

Hundreds of families displaced by the violence that broke out in the remote Kyrgyz-Tajik border areas of Batken and Osh last September are facing the coldest winter to hit the region in over a decade, as fuel prices and air pollution add to their daily challenges.   Countries in Central Asia are currently facing the extremely cold winters with temperatures plummeting to an all-time low in 15 years with those internally displaced especially from the clashes bearing the brunt. Although a ceasefire currently holds in the border area, a lasting solution to the border disputes remains beyond the parties’ grasp,…

Russian activist Yevgenia Shamina received a panicked phone call on June 5 from a friend of Aleksei Rozhkov, an anti-Kremlin, anti-war political emigre living in Kyrgyzstan’s capital, Bishkek, after Rozhkov stopped returning her phone calls. “She suggested that [Rozhkov] might have been detained and taken away to Russia,” Shamina, who is based in Georgia, told RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service. That assumption proved to be correct. A notice that confirmed his status as a defendant in a court hearing in Russia’s Sverdlovsk region appeared on the court’s website that same day. After finding a lawyer who had gained access to Rozhkov in Russian detention,…

Talks between Rosatom Director General Alexei Likhachev and the Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Kyrgyz Republic, Akylbek Zhaparov, took place during the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council. According to Rosatom, “the whole range of issues of bilateral cooperation was considered, including the reclamation of uranium tailings, low-power nuclear power plants and nuclear medicine”. The MoC covers plans “to jointly develop high-tech medical projects in Kyrgyzstan. In particular, we are talking about the creation of a radiopharmaceutical pharmacy and a molecular imaging centre on the basis of the National Centre for Oncology and Haematology, where advanced methods for diagnosing and treating oncological and…