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Exploration

Explorers Club Launches Kazakhstan-Based Central Asia Chapter

The Explorers Club celebrated the launch of its Central Asia chapter at its New York headquarters on November 12, with former president Richard Wiese predicting that the qualifications of its inaugural members would make it one of the organization’s leading international chapters. “I was blown away, and I don’t say this lightly,” Wiese said, describing his review of around 30 applicants. “I’d say it’s going to be one of our top international chapters in the world. I mean, the qualifications are just stunning.” The club announced its approval of the Kazakhstan-based Central Asia chapter’s formation on October 23, naming Meiram Begentayev as its chair. The New York gathering brought together explorers, conservationists and diplomats to discuss Kazakhstan’s contribution to scientific discovery and opportunities for future expeditions. Founded in 1904, the Explorers Club has counted among its members pioneers involved in the first ascent of Mount Everest, the deepest ocean descent and the first Moon landing. Its history includes figures such as Sir Edmund Hillary, Jacques Piccard and Neil Armstrong. Its current honorary chair is Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and the space exploration company Blue Origin. Welcoming guests, former president Ted Janulis said the organization now had more than 4,000 members across 39 chapters, including 19 outside the United States. He emphasized that exploration should lead to knowledge that helps people become better stewards of the planet. Yerzhan Kazykhan, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s special representative for negotiations with the United States, traced the initiative to discussions with Wiese about a year and a half earlier. He thanked the club’s leadership for helping turn the proposal into an established chapter. “We want Kazakhstan to become a meeting point of explorers from around the world,” Kazykhan said. Kazykhan pointed to Baikonur’s role in human spaceflight and the opportunities for research offered by Kazakhstan’s archaeological sites, mountains and grasslands. Kazakhstan’s ambassador to the United States, Magzhan Ilyassov, said the chapter could help bring the country’s history and scientific significance to audiences unfamiliar with the region. He also emphasized that relationships formed through exploration could endure beyond changes in political administrations. “You’re building these long-lasting relations between people,” he told club members. Former club president Richard Garriott brought some humor to the proceedings, recalling how he launched into space from Kazakhstan in 2008, only to discover upon landing that he needed a second entry visa. Ambassador Ilyassov joined the joke, reassuring him that Kazakhstan had since relaxed its visa requirements. British explorer and author Nick Fielding presented a longer history of encounters between Kazakhstan and Western travelers, drawing on his research into Thomas and Lucy Atkinson’s nineteenth-century journeys and his own expeditions. Fielding is undertaking a three-part journey following the Syr Darya river system from its headwaters in Kyrgyzstan through Uzbekistan and Tajikistan into Kazakhstan. The project examines the settlements and archaeological remains along a route connecting the mountains of Central Asia with the Aral Sea. “Don’t let anybody tell you that Kazakhs are only a nation of nomads,” he said. Drawing on visits to...

Podcast

Pannier and Hillard’s Spotlight on Central Asia: New Episode Coming Sunday

As Managing Editor of The Times of Central Asia, I’m delighted that, in partnership with the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs, we are the home of the Spotlight on Central Asia podcast. Chaired by seasoned broadcasters Bruce Pannier of RFE/RL’s long-running Majlis podcast and Michael Hillard of The Red Line, each fortnightly instalment will take you on a deep dive into the latest news, developments, security issues, and social trends across an increasingly pivotal region. This week, the team looks at the role of clusters in Uzbekistan's farming sector, which is key to understanding what Mirziyoyev's comments about farmers receiving some $1 billion in profits from this year's cotton harvest really means. Special guest: Umida Niyazova, the director and founder of the Uzbek Forum for Human Rights.

Energy Security

What Berlin Can Offer to Finance Kazakhstan’s Oil Routes

Kazakhstan has formally asked Russia to restore oil deliveries to Germany through the Druzhba pipeline after a six-month suspension. Russia suspended transit on May 1, citing unspecified technical constraints. Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov said on November 4 that he had delivered the request personally. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Chancellor Friedrich Merz had discussed increasing Kazakhstan’s oil supplies to Germany at their September 29 meeting in Berlin. Merz described Kazakhstani crude as a means of diversifying supplies after Germany stopped buying Russian oil. On November 6, Kazakhstan’s Energy Ministry said no deliveries to Germany were planned via Druzhba for November or December, but resumption could be considered if the unspecified technical restrictions were resolved and transport conditions secured. Germany imported about 10.3 million metric tons of crude from Kazakhstan in 2025, according to UN Comtrade data. Kazakhstan’s Energy Ministry puts deliveries through Druzhba to the PCK refinery at Schwedt at 2.1 million tons that year. Druzhba therefore accounts for only part of Germany’s oil trade with Kazakhstan. Restoring Druzhba deliveries and developing additional routes would strengthen Kazakhstan’s access to European markets and give German buyers more options during disruptions. That shared interest gives Berlin a reason to consider helping finance the capacity needed to make this trade more reliable. Purchase Commitments and Transport Access In October 2025, KazMunayGas (KMG) extended its supply agreement with Rosneft Deutschland through the end of 2026. The contract provided for monthly deliveries from Karachaganak Petroleum Operating resources to rise from 100,000 to 130,000 tons; KMG also reported supplies from other fields. Russia’s Druzhba suspension followed in May 2026, despite that purchasing commitment. Any additional purchase commitments by German buyers would need corresponding arrangements for transit. Kazakhstani oil also travels across the Caspian Sea to Baku and onward through the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline. KMG’s annual report identifies work with Azerbaijan’s state oil company, SOCAR, to reduce tariffs, make charges transparent, and assess how Kazakhstani crude affects the Azeri Light blend. Renewed talks on higher volumes were reported in November. Negotiations over tariffs and crude quality would condition the delivered price of Kazakhstani oil for German buyers. Longer purchase agreements could support investment if producers undertake to supply the oil and if operators reserve the capacity to carry it. Lenders could assess whether the expected revenues would cover the facilities’ costs and how long repayment would take. Contracts would then have to establish who pays for unused capacity and bears losses from interrupted deliveries. The German government’s trusteeship over Rosneft Deutschland and RN Refining & Marketing, exercised through the Bundesnetzagentur, was extended indefinitely in February 2026. This gives Berlin a role on the purchasing side: it could encourage the companies to negotiate longer supply commitments with Kazakhstani producers. It could bring not only buyers and producers but also operators into these negotiations. At the receiving end, Germany has budgeted €400 million for 2025–2029 to improve the Rostock–Schwedt pipeline and the port of Rostock and make the adaptations needed to process non-Russian crudes from Kazakhstan and other suppliers. Nevertheless,...

CSTO

CSTO Without Armenia: What Keeps Yerevan From Leaving and What the Summit Means for Central Asia

Armenia has effectively stopped participating in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) but has not formally withdrawn from the military alliance. At the November 11, 2026, summit in Moscow, Armenia lost its voting rights because of unpaid membership dues, while the CSTO's five other members — Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Belarus — agreed to develop collective aviation forces and mobile air defense units. Kazakh political analyst Maksim Kaznacheyev explained to The Times of Central Asia why Armenia's leadership is reluctant to sever ties with the CSTO and what the new military agreements could mean for Central Asian countries. Why Armenia Has Not Left the CSTO Yerevan froze its participation in the organization in February 2024, accusing its allies of failing to ensure Armenia's security during armed clashes with Azerbaijan. Armenia stopped paying membership dues and sending representatives to CSTO bodies. At the November 11 summit, CSTO members decided that Armenia would lose its voting rights and the ability to nominate candidates for senior positions because of unpaid contributions. CSTO Secretary-General Taalatbek Masadykov said, however, that the organization was not considering expelling Armenia. Kaznacheyev attributes Yerevan's reluctance to sever ties with the CSTO to Armenia's domestic political situation. "If Armenia leaves the CSTO or the EAEU, pro-Western actions could trigger an internal crisis and destabilize the country," Kaznacheyev said. He believes Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is seeking to avoid deepening divisions within Armenia as his government pursues closer ties with the European Union. Yerevan, however, has pursued different policies toward the two organizations. Armenia has suspended its participation in the CSTO but continues to operate within the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). On November 5, Pashinyan said the country was not preparing to leave the EAEU. The CSTO has experienced the departure of member states before. Uzbekistan signed the Collective Security Treaty in 1992, declined to renew it in 1999, rejoined the CSTO in 2006, and suspended its membership again in 2012. Kaznacheyev believes Armenia's situation is substantially different. "Uzbekistan's experience does not apply to Armenia because Uzbekistan had a unified political elite when it left the CSTO," Kaznacheyev said. He noted that Tashkent also had a bilateral security agreement with Russia, allowing it to maintain military cooperation outside the CSTO. For Kazakhstan, Armenia's dispute with the CSTO does not create an immediate security threat. Kaznacheyev said Astana's restrained position reflects its limited direct interests in Armenia and its growing transport links through Azerbaijan and Georgia toward Turkey. "That is why Kazakhstan maintains a restrained, neutral position," he said. What the New Air Defense Agreements Mean for Central Asia At the Moscow summit, CSTO members agreed to develop the organization's Collective Aviation Forces and approved plans for mobile air defense units to protect joint military formations. Plans call for incorporating combat aviation units alongside transport and special-purpose aircraft. Kaznacheyev believes the agreements could expand Russian military-technical assistance to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. He argues that Russia could help other CSTO members modernize their air forces and air defenses, particularly in Kyrgyzstan...

Kyrgyz Art

Bishkek’s Vanishing Spaces Through the Eyes of Artist Sonata Raiymkulova

On Abdymomunov Street in Bishkek, a café serves Qurt Mocha, a drink based on coffee, hot chocolate, and qurt, the local extra-salty Kyrgyz cheese. It’s easy to get addicted to it, and the presentation is aesthetic enough to make a captivating Instagram story. Perhaps it’s still a long way before this will become the next matcha latte, coveted by ‘it girls’ around the world, but certainly not for lack of trying on my part. “I always wanted to try this coffee shop,” artist Sonata Raiymkulova tells me. Elegant and slightly coy, she is certainly an ‘it girl’ of the Central Asian art world herself, “… but I’ll take some green tea instead,” she concludes. While I start feeling like an easily gulled tourist, she sits across from me in the Kölökö coffee shop, lightly tapping on her iPad and showing me her virtual portfolio. The coffee shop has a beautiful garden, with dim lights and a serene nightly atmosphere. I can’t help but notice how this contrasts with the air, which is so heavy with smog that it’s hardly breathable. Like the livability of Kyrgyz cities, issues such as pollution are precisely what Sonata, a former architect with a passion for urbanism, tackles in her work. Her drawings, installations, and performances don’t necessarily look Kyrgyz, or at least not like what foreigners would expect Central Asian art to look like. Not so much qurt in them, so to speak. Rather than attaching herself to some recognizable traditional elements, Sonata tackles the present of her city, Bishkek, where she was born and raised, and where, after her architectural studies, she took up contemporary art. Her Dō – I use the Japanese term as her father steeped her and her brother in Japanese traditions - is collaborative and a little unorthodox. In 2016, she joined Estelik (also known as “monument of memory”), a Bishkek project in which artists, artisans and participants swapped brand-new stools for old, colorful ones and piled their haul into an impromptu massive monument. In 2021, she was one of more than 40 artists from the five Central Asian countries involved in Art Plov CA, a British Council-supported project run from Tashkent. Her studies also took her to Moscow to the HSE Design School, where she graduated. In 2023, she won a Prince Claus Fund Seed Award, one of 100 awarded that year across more than 60 countries. She later told her university she had known about the prize for years but had been too scared to apply, and that winning mostly meant doubting herself less. In February 2024, she had a solo show at DREIVIERTEL in Bern, in collaboration with the Residency.ch programme. She has also had shows in Karlsruhe, Milan, Almaty, and Moscow. This summer she was back in Almaty with Bishkek Gothic, a series made with her brother Marat Raiymkulov for Efes Art Space’s Sayran city route. Raiymkulova's work moves between the personal and the political, exploring the human body as well as Bishkek's changing urban...

COP31

Uzbekistan Proposes Regional Disaster Warning System at COP31

Uzbekistan has proposed establishing a joint early warning system for natural disasters in Central Asia. The plan also calls for greater climate data sharing and coordinated efforts to fund land restoration. The initiative was presented by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on November 11 at the COP31 leaders' summit, part of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Antalya, Türkiye. “No country can address the challenges of climate change on its own,” Mirziyoyev said. Mirziyoyev proposed beginning with the exchange of information on climate risks, supported by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The next step would be to establish common indicators for monitoring long-term changes, including glacier retreat. Two additional areas of cooperation would involve soil restoration technologies and new financing mechanisms for arid regions. For Central Asia, accurate forecasting has direct economic implications. Much of the region's river runoff originates in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, while most water withdrawals are used to irrigate agricultural land in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and southern Kazakhstan. According to the World Bank, agriculture accounts for approximately 90% of freshwater withdrawals in the region. Information on snow cover, precipitation, and expected river flows allows authorities to adjust reservoir operations and irrigation schedules in advance. During the 2025 glaciological year, which ran from October 2024 through September 2025, most monitored glaciers in the Tian Shan and Pamir mountains experienced substantial mass loss. The WMO attributes this to insufficient winter precipitation and elevated temperatures between May and September. Glacier retreat is changing the seasonal distribution of river flows on which agriculture, hydropower generation, and water supplies depend. Shared Forecasts Instead of Fragmented Monitoring Central Asian countries already exchange some hydrometeorological information. With World Bank support, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have modernized their monitoring networks and expanded data sharing with regional centers, including the existing WMO-designated regional meteorological center operated by Uzhydromet in Tashkent. According to the bank, the sharing of real-time observations has improved forecast accuracy and helped national agencies warn neighboring countries about flooding risks along transboundary rivers. The proposed mechanism would extend this practice to other climate threats. On November 10, the day before Mirziyoyev's address, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo outlined possible functions for a new regional climate center serving Central Asia and the Turkic states at an event in Antalya. Such a center could produce seasonal forecasts, assess drought risks, and help national meteorological agencies monitor glaciers. Establishing the center would require agreed rules for data exchange, a division of responsibilities, and sustained funding. The WMO has emphasized that national meteorological services would retain responsibility for forecasts and warnings within their respective countries. Uzbekistan intends to address some of these issues during its 2027–2029 chairmanship of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS). The fund was established by the five Central Asian countries in 1993 to promote cooperation on water management in the Aral Sea basin. On November 9, Mirziyoyev was presented with 133 projects worth a combined $3.3 billion. They include modernization of water management infrastructure, automated water monitoring and distribution, and a...