Features - The Times Of Central Asia

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Official Visit

Tokayev in Berlin: Ukraine, Putin, and Germany’s Growing Economic Interest in Kazakhstan

The war in Ukraine, Kazakhstan’s relations with Russia, energy, and Germany’s growing interest in Central Asia’s raw materials were all on the agenda during Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s visit to Berlin on September 29. The Kazakh president again called for a freeze on hostilities in Ukraine before moving toward diplomacy, while emphasizing Kazakhstan’s close ties with Russia. Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Moscow had so far shown no willingness to engage in substantive peace talks. The two sides also discussed increasing supplies of Kazakh oil, critical minerals, German investment, and transport routes between Asia and Europe. After the meeting, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the two leaders had discussed Russia and its war against Ukraine “very intensively.” Berlin’s position is that Moscow must end the war and enter serious negotiations involving Ukraine and European states. “The aim of such peace negotiations must be a sovereign Ukraine in a secure Europe,” Merz said. Until Russia is ready for such a peace, he added, Germany will continue to support Kyiv. Reiterating his position, Tokayev advocated a different sequence. He said he did not consider a rapid end to the war realistic under current conditions and called for first freezing hostilities in Ukraine and then moving toward diplomacy and negotiations. The Kazakh president also reaffirmed his commitment to the UN Charter and respect for the territorial integrity of states, while stressing his respect for the Ukrainian people, their culture, history, traditions, and language. A similar position was set out in a joint declaration by Tokayev and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The two expressed support for a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace in Ukraine in accordance with the UN Charter and underscored their respect for the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of states. At the press conference with Merz, however, Tokayev also emphasized Kazakhstan’s close relationship with Moscow. He said he had “very good contact” with Putin, and described the Russian president as an “outstanding political figure.” Tokayev also explained Kazakhstan’s relationship with Russia in geographical and demographic terms. The two countries share a border of more than 7,500 kilometers, and Kazakhstan has a large ethnic Russian population. “Whatever may happen on the territory of Ukraine, we never forget that both Russia and Ukraine are our good friends,” Tokayev said. Merz thanked Kazakhstan for helping prevent the circumvention of sanctions against Russia, describing this as “work for peace.” Kazakhstan has not joined Western sanctions against Russia, but has repeatedly said it will not allow its territory to be used to circumvent them. For the European Union, controls on re-exports through third countries have taken on greater importance since 2022, as Russia’s trade with several Central Asian states increased sharply. Oil featured prominently in the economic discussions. Merz said Germany was interested in receiving more crude from Kazakhstan to replace Russian oil. “We are looking for ways to diversify our supply relationships, and Kazakhstan is an important building block in this region of the world,” the chancellor said. Kazakhstan began supplying crude to the PCK refinery in Schwedt in...

Central Asia-U.S. Relations

Opinion: Central Asia Is More Than Minerals

For years, Central Asia was one of those regions that Washington periodically rediscovered and then forgot. Officials visited and announced new initiatives, but the relationship hardly changed. That is no longer the case. Many pundits see the current surge of American interest in Central Asia through the lens of transactional foreign policy: nowadays the focus has been on critical minerals, supply-chain security, and competition with China. Valid so far as it goes, this approach misses the larger story. Central Asia is not suddenly important because of its minerals or because Washington has decided that it is. Increasingly, Washington must pay attention to Central Asia because the region itself is changing, and in largely positive directions. Over three decades, American investors largely dismissed the region as too poorly governed and too distant. Now the region itself is working to change the conditions that made it unattractive. The transformation is far from complete, but it is real. When the Central Asian states emerged from the Soviet Union in 1991, they faced grave disadvantages. State enterprises dominated their economies, and they fell short of Western investors’ expectations in both the rule of law and transparency. While such problems have not disappeared, they are everywhere being worked on. Uzbekistan provides the clearest example. Since 2017, Tashkent has undertaken reforms to liberalize its economy and improve the environment for private investment. The World Bank now describes Uzbekistan as one of the world's top reformers. Kazakhstan has also built more sophisticated financial and regulatory institutions. Its goal is to position itself as a regional hub for logistics, energy, and finance. The World Bank's new 2026–31 country strategy emphasizes a "business-ready Kazakhstan," with greater private-sector participation, improved infrastructure, and better natural-resource management. The pace of change in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan has been slower, for understandable reasons. Kyrgyzstan’s early political reforms long left the government rudderless, Tajikistan endured a five-year civil war, and Turkmenistan was stymied by Russia’s total control of its gas industry. Now these countries, too, are belatedly advancing. Central Asia has not become Switzerland. Corruption, political interference, and governance problems still afflict the countries’ economies, and the OECD continues to identify these as important obstacles to investment. The question is not whether Central Asia has solved these problems but whether it has changed enough to become investable. The answer increasingly is yes, it has. Moscow's offensive in Ukraine accelerated changes Washington had sought for decades. Secondary sanctions compelled Central Asians to develop new commercial avenues not subject to international restrictions. While Central Asian governments maintain important relations with Russia, they all seek pragmatic alternatives that reduce their former reliance on Moscow. The countries are expanding regional cooperation while reaching across the Caspian to the South Caucasus and beyond. The resulting Middle Corridor promises direct access to global markets. The measure of its success will be whether Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan gain trans-Caspian pipelines to transport their resources directly to Europe. In short, Central Asia is doing what Washington has long wanted it to do: become more...

Stand-Up Comedy

Interview: Kazakhstan’s Dinara Kerey on Borat, the Boundaries of Humor, and International Stand-Up

In just four years, Dinara Kerey has gone from performing at open mics to staging her own stand-up shows across Europe, North America, and Central Asia, including a tour of her solo show Crazy Eurasian. Born in Kazakhstan, she left the country at 17, studied in South Korea and the United States, and now lives in Berlin, where she works in IT and performs comedy in English, Russian, and German. At a show in Vancouver, she found an immediate connection with Kazakhs living abroad. In other rooms, she says, her first jokes must explain that she is from Kazakhstan. The Times of Central Asia spoke with Kerey about cultural boundaries in comedy, Borat’s portrayal of Kazakhstan, the fear of being seen, and the cost of building a career largely on her own. TCA: Dinara, you sometimes perform eight or nine shows a month and have appeared in Kazakhstan, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Turkey, though you’ve only been doing stand-up for four years. Do you feel popular? Dinara Kerey: For me, this is just the beginning. My schedule is busy because I want it to be busy. I organize all my shows myself, so it’s entirely up to me. Right now, for example, I’m heading home to Berlin after touring Kazakhstan, where I did an English-language show for 150 people. TCA: Were most of the people in the audience foreigners or locals? Kerey: There were a lot of foreigners, but most of the audience was Kazakh. They were well-educated, English-speaking young people. And there was this funny thing; after the show, a lot of them came up to me and we kept speaking English, even though both sides knew perfectly well that we could speak another language. Maybe some of them just wanted the practice. TCA: What kind of reception do you get back home? And where have you found particularly warm audiences? Kerey: The reception at home is good, especially in Almaty, which is nice. But I’d also single out Vancouver. More than 90 people came to my show there, and around 40 of them were Kazakhs who had been living there for a long time. I’ve lived abroad for 14 years myself, so there was an immediate connection with them, this shared relatability. Pretty much all my jokes landed really well. I guess we have similar backgrounds and look at life from the same angles: as immigrants, as Kazakhs, as Asians, and ultimately as post-Soviet people, or Eastern Europeans, as people tend to say now. All those different parts of me matched up with them. TCA: Did the material resonate with the other Canadians as well? Kerey: Yes. The people who came to my show had similar experiences. They were very well-traveled and had also moved from country to country before finding a place they could call home. I think the difference was especially noticeable because in Canada, more than anywhere else I’ve been, people celebrate their differences. They may be Canadian by passport, but nobody demands...

Military Procurement

Why Central Asia Is Diversifying Its Arms Suppliers

India could become another supplier of major weapons to Central Asia. Indian Masterminds reported in July that Samir V. Kamat, former chairman of India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), said India had exported Akash surface-to-air missile systems to Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. The reported deliveries remain unconfirmed by the recipient governments. Publicly available accounts give no contract values, quantities, or delivery schedules. DRDO says an initial Akash battery has been flagged off for export to friendly foreign countries, without naming the recipients. Akash is a mobile medium-range surface-to-air missile system designed to counter aircraft, helicopters, cruise missiles, and drones. If the reported deliveries are confirmed, they would mark the first publicly known Akash exports to Central Asia following India’s deal with Armenia. The region’s armed forces still rely heavily on Soviet- and Russian-designed equipment, but governments are increasingly buying newer systems from other suppliers. Russia retains a strong position where countries need to maintain Soviet- and Russian-designed equipment already in service. Other suppliers are winning orders for drones and aircraft, extending their role in the region’s defense procurement. The figures illustrate the persistence of Russian influence. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Russia accounted for 83% of Kazakhstan’s imports of major arms in 2021–25. These figures measure transfers of major weapons, rather than the full range of military supplies and support. Russia’s exports of major arms, however, fell by 64% in 2021–25 compared with the previous five-year period. Nearly three-quarters of its exports went to India, China, and Belarus. SIPRI attributes much of the fall to reduced deliveries to Algeria, China, and Egypt. The most visible shift has occurred in Uzbekistan. In late August, official footage showed Chinese-built J-10CE fighter jets carrying Uzbek markings. At least six aircraft could be seen. For three decades, Soviet-designed MiG-29s and Su-27s formed the backbone of Uzbekistan’s fighter fleet. Operating the J-10CE requires different training and maintenance arrangements, alongside compatible weapons and ground equipment. The transition moves a key component of the Uzbek Air Force outside its traditional supply chain. On September 25, Brazil’s Embraer delivered the first C-390 Millennium military transport aircraft to the Uzbek Air Force. The handover ceremony took place at the company’s facility in Gavião Peixoto, making Uzbekistan the first C-390 operator in Central Asia. The late-2024 contract includes training to operate the aircraft and covers its upkeep with technical support and spare parts. The aircraft can carry payloads of up to 26 metric tons and can be configured for troop and cargo transport, aerial refueling, medical evacuation, and search-and-rescue missions. Kazakhstan’s military has put Turkish Aerospace Industries’ ANKA drone into service after military trials. In its review of 2024, Kazakhstan’s Defense Ministry reported discussions with Baykar, another Turkish drone maker, on a roadmap for local production of tactical drones and loitering munitions. The latter can remain airborne while searching for a target before striking it. The same review said the Turkish side had offered to provide Bayraktar Kalkan and Bayraktar Mini reconnaissance drones, along with the...

C5+1

U.S. Links Trusted Digital Infrastructure to Investment at C5+1 Conference

Stronger cybersecurity and trusted digital infrastructure could encourage greater U.S. investment in Central Asia, Mark Cameron said in Astana on September 29. Cameron, deputy assistant secretary in the State Department’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, was speaking at the C5+1 conference on artificial intelligence. He said data centers and trusted infrastructure would give American companies greater confidence to invest and expand their cooperation across the region. “The strongest house is built on the firmest foundation,” Cameron told reporters, linking cybersecurity to the development of advanced AI. Cameron said Washington sees private companies as central to the process, with government programs helping create conditions for investment and technological cooperation. “The United States has the deep belief that companies, given the opportunity, will find great solutions and new opportunities that many of us have never even considered before,” Cameron said. He said Washington has committed $5 million through CRDF Global for cybersecurity and digital-sector assistance. The support covers incident response, critical infrastructure protection, financial sector security, and cybersecurity policy. The C5+1 format brings together the United States and the five Central Asian countries. The conference comes ahead of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s planned business delegation to Uzbekistan in mid-October, involving executives from more than 100 American companies alongside talks with the region’s foreign ministers. Kazakhstan Sets Out Its AI Development Model Kazakhstan’s vice minister of artificial intelligence and digital development, Bakhtiyar Mukhametkaliyev, described the development of an AI economy as a five-layer process. Energy comes first, followed by access to chips and graphics processing units (GPUs), information systems, high-quality data, and finally AI agents. Countries that attempt to deploy AI agents before building the infrastructure and data beneath them, Mukhametkaliyev said, are unlikely to realize their full economic value. He also framed data centers as a way for Kazakhstan to convert its energy and resource base into higher-value digital capacity. Mukhametkaliyev stressed that Kazakhstan does not intend to build its emerging AI ecosystem solely for the domestic market. He said the infrastructure should also help neighboring countries develop their AI industries and improve connectivity. He also pointed to drones, space technologies, startups, and workforce reskilling as areas where digitalization could create new markets and occupations. Kazakhstan’s ties with U.S. technology companies are also expanding. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang is scheduled to make his first visit to Kazakhstan on October 23, as the country develops data centers and NVIDIA-based computing infrastructure. Regional Plans for AI Development Kyrgyzstan focused on practical AI applications, human oversight, education, and local-language models. Niyazaly Bazarbaev, adviser to the minister of digital development and innovative technologies, said Kyrgyz and other Central Asian languages remain insufficiently represented in existing AI systems. He discussed work involving a Kyrgyz-language corpus of roughly five million words and efforts to prepare the school curriculum for an AI-driven economy. Tajikistan presented AI as a presidential priority. Hakim Ismoilzoda, first deputy director of the Agency for Innovation and Digital Technologies, highlighted Tajikistan’s initiatives at the United Nations on AI and its safe, secure,...

ICT Week Uzbekistan 2026

Golden Gate Ventures Plans Two-Year Program for Central Asian Startups in Uzbekistan

Singapore-based venture capital firm Golden Gate Ventures plans to launch a two-year program in Uzbekistan for 20 startup founders from across Central Asia, giving them access to mentors and the fund’s international network. Michael Lints, MENA founding partner at Golden Gate Ventures, announced the initiative during ICT Week Uzbekistan 2026, held in Tashkent from September 22 to 25. The program will be launched with IT Park Uzbekistan, while details of the application and selection process are expected later. Lints told The Times of Central Asia that Golden Gate Ventures had also opened an office in Tashkent in June and now plans to invest in Uzbek startups. “We have strong confidence in the potential of your country, the startup founders we are meeting here, and the companies they are building,” he said. “Last year, IT Park invited us, and one year later, we have our own office here.” The two-year program will connect the selected founders with Golden Gate Ventures’ network in Asia, the Middle East, the United States, and Europe. Lints said the fund sees Uzbekistan developing into an important startup center in Central Asia. Startups featured prominently at ICT Week this year. The event was promoted under the “Land of Startups” concept, with more than 50 startups presenting their products to investors and potential partners. ICT Week’s official program also brought venture investors, including Golden Gate Ventures, Gobi Partners, 500 Global, SparkLabs, and other funds to its Startup & Venture Summit. Farrukh Erkinov, Director of Startup and Venture Ecosystem Development at IT Park Uzbekistan, told TCA that the number of international investors and startup organizations attending events in Tashkent has changed considerably in recent years. “A conversation at a stand can later turn into an order, while a presentation can become an investment partnership,” Erkinov said. “A team that has created a product can meet, right here, the people who can help them develop it.” [caption id="attachment_57199" align="aligncenter" width="1774"] Alif, an international fintech company in Central Asia with projects in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Pakistan, has a banner where visitors write their names or the names of their projects; image: ТСА[/caption] Among the regional participants was AI Academy from Kyrgyzstan. Product manager Emir Satykenov said the academy trains students in data engineering, data analytics, data science, machine learning, and AI engineering. According to Satykenov, more than 1,000 students have studied at the academy, while its wider AI community includes more than 2,500 people. Some courses are free, including programs for women and people who cannot afford tuition, with grants provided by Kyrgyzstan’s High Technology Park. The academy is also connected with Kyrgyz AI Research, whose developers are building open-source AI models for Kyrgyz, Kazakh, and other Central Asian languages. “Our AI model can work in Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and other Central Asian languages,” Satykenov said. “We also have an LLM model for text-to-text and image generation, and we are creating many open-source models in Kyrgyzstan.” [caption id="attachment_57201" align="aligncenter" width="1774"] The Huawei exhibition stand at ICT Week Uzbekistan 2026. Image: TCA[/caption] Elsewhere...