Kazakhstan Featurees - The Times Of Central Asia

Viewing results 13 - 18 of 2333

Astana LRT

Astana Launches First Light Rail Transit Service After Years of Delay

Kazakhstan has officially launched Astana’s long-awaited light rail transit (LRT) system, connecting the capital’s international airport with Nurly Zhol railway station. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev took part in the inauguration ceremony despite previously expressing doubts about the project’s viability. The Astana LRT project, envisioned as a high-speed elevated transport system designed to bypass road congestion, was first launched in 2011. Authorities initially planned to complete construction by 2017, ahead of the international EXPO exhibition hosted in the capital. However, the project was suspended in 2013 because of rising costs. In 2015, Astana’s city administration attempted to revive the initiative with the participation of a consortium of Chinese companies, China Railway International Group Limited and Beijing State-Owned Assets Management Co., Ltd., but the contractors later withdrew because of financing problems. [caption id="attachment_49015" align="aligncenter" width="2560"] @Akorda[/caption] In 2019, criminal investigations were launched over allegations of inflated project costs and embezzlement of public funds allocated for construction. Former Astana LRT chief Talgat Ardan and former deputy mayor of Astana Kanat Sultanbekov were accused of embezzling nearly 30 billion KZT (approximately $79 million at the exchange rate at the time). In May 2023, both men were sentenced in absentia to seven years in prison. Ardan was detained in Turkey in May 2025 following an extradition request by Kazakhstan. However, to date, he has not been extradited because the legal assistance agreement between Kazakhstan and Turkey does not specify deadlines for extradition procedures. [caption id="attachment_49041" align="aligncenter" width="2560"] @Akorda[/caption] Despite Tokayev’s initial skepticism about the LRT project’s practicality, city authorities ultimately decided to complete construction. The system officially entered service this weekend, with Tokayev personally attending the launch ceremony. During a visit to the Unified Dispatch Center, which is responsible for monitoring and regulating Astana’s public transport system, including the LRT network, Tokayev described the opening as significant not only for Astana but for Kazakhstan as a whole. Tokayev said the capital should eventually become a major transportation hub for Eurasia. [caption id="attachment_49016" align="aligncenter" width="2560"] @Akorda[/caption] After receiving passenger card No. 001, Tokayev became the system’s first official passenger, traveling from the airport to the National Museum station. Astana Mayor Zhenis Kassymbek said a dedicated dispatch service for the LRT system has been established. Twenty-one specialists are involved in monitoring and regulating the city’s public transport network. Each LRT train can carry more than 600 passengers. The 22.4-kilometer line will operate with 15 trains, while four additional trains will remain in reserve. The trains operate in fully automated driverless mode. Train acceleration, braking, door operations, and emergency response systems are entirely automated, although manual control and communication with dispatchers remain available as backup systems. The new infrastructure includes 18 stations and a modern depot facility. Travel time across the entire route is expected to take approximately 40 minutes, with average speeds of 50-60 kilometers per hour. Trains are scheduled to run at intervals of five to six minutes. [caption id="attachment_49017" align="aligncenter" width="2560"] @Akorda[/caption] Authorities are already discussing a second expansion phase of the LRT network. Planned future...

Critical Minerals

Central Asia Seeks More Local Value From Critical Minerals

Rising demand for critical minerals is drawing Central Asia deeper into global supply chains, but the region’s harder test is not whether it has the deposits. It is whether more value can stay at home. Copper, tungsten, graphite, antimony, rare earths and other metals now sit at the center of battery production, power grids, chips, weapons systems, and renewable energy. Governments across the region want the sector to bring capital, jobs, and technology. The risk is another cycle in which raw materials leave the region, and most of the value is created elsewhere. The scale of the region’s reserves explains why outside interest is rising. An OECD review of critical raw materials in Central Asia says the region holds 39% of global manganese ore reserves, 31% of chromium, 20% of lead, 13% of zinc, 9% of titanium, 6% of aluminum, and 5% each of copper, cobalt, and molybdenum. The same review says Kazakhstan can export 21 of the 34 critical raw materials on the EU list, while Kyrgyzstan has the world’s third-largest antimony reserves, and Uzbekistan has the world’s eleventh-largest copper reserves. Uranium widens the picture: Kazakhstan is the world’s largest uranium producer, accounting for 39% of mined uranium supply in 2024, according to the World Nuclear Association. Kazakhstan has moved fastest in turning this base into policy. The prime minister’s office says the country will spend about $500 million over three years on geological exploration and modernizing infrastructure. The plan includes seismic surveys, new data systems, and a geological cluster in Astana. The government wants to raise geological study coverage to 2.2 million square kilometers. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has linked the sector to Kazakhstan’s wider industrial plans. In his 2025 state-of-the-nation address, Tokayev said the mining and metallurgical complex still had “significant growth potential, particularly in the production of high-value-added products.” New discoveries have sharpened that push. Kazakhstan’s industry ministry said in 2025 that geologists had identified the Zhana Kazakhstan rare earth site, with estimated resources of more than 20 million metric tons. The site contains neodymium, cerium, lanthanum, and yttrium. Officials have also cited the Kuirektykol site in the Karaganda Region, where confirmed reserves are estimated at 795,800 tons, with total resources estimated at 935,400 tons. Uzbekistan is making its strongest move in copper and processing capacity. In March, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev launched Copper Concentrator No. 3 at the Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Complex. The $2.7 billion facility is designed to process 60 million tons of ore and produce about 900,000 tons of copper concentrate per year. Once fully operational, it is expected to raise daily concentrate output at Almalyk from 2,400 tons to 5,000 tons. Uzbekistan’s minerals push has also drawn U.S. support. Uzbekistan and the United States signed a memorandum on critical minerals and rare earth supply chains in February, giving Tashkent a clearer place in Washington’s effort to diversify critical minerals supply chains beyond China. The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation later signed a Joint Investment Framework with Uzbekistan, stating that this would “promote cooperation...

State Visit

Erdoğan Visit Highlights Kazakhstan’s Middle Corridor Strategy

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Kazakhstan highlighted the growing importance of the Middle Corridor in Ankara-Astana relations, while also showing how Kazakhstan is trying to deepen ties with Turkey without abandoning its multi-vector foreign policy. According to experts, the central issue discussed during negotiations was the development of the Middle Corridor, officially known as the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR). The importance of the route was underscored directly by Erdoğan during a joint media briefing following the talks. The Turkish president highlighted the strategic significance of the East-West-Mediterranean transit corridor crossing the Caspian Sea, describing it as a “modern version of the Silk Road,” the relevance of which is becoming increasingly apparent. The Kazakh side sought to frame the visit within a broader political and cultural context. The declaration signed by the two presidents, along with other documents exchanged by the official delegations, pointed less to a breakthrough than to the continued expansion of existing political, economic, transport, and cultural cooperation. Kazakhstan and Turkey agreed to deepen cultural, humanitarian, and economic cooperation, while continuing joint investment projects, including the further infrastructure development of Almaty International Airport, which is managed by Turkey’s TAV Holding. Political analyst Daniyar Ashimbayev noted that the tone of the visit was largely shaped by an unusually emotional and ceremonial welcome. “Tokayev called Erdoğan a ‘dear brother’ and described his visit as a ‘historic event.’ Erdoğan, in turn, thanked the Kazakh leader for the invitation to visit the ‘land of ancestors.’ Tokayev twice emphasized that there are ‘no disagreements or contradictions’ between Kazakhstan and Turkey. He described Erdoğan’s policies as ‘balanced and far-sighted,’ while noting Turkey’s steadily growing influence on the global stage,” Ashimbayev wrote. According to Ashimbayev, Tokayev also praised Turkey as a “golden bridge” connecting Europe and Asia, as well as the broader Turkic world. At the same time, the analyst pointed out that Erdoğan, in an article written for the Kazinform agency, also sharply condemned what he described as Israel’s “crimes” against shared human values, despite Kazakhstan maintaining strong and mutually beneficial ties with Israel. “Contrary to some interpretations, Erdoğan’s visit did not resemble an inspection by a ‘senior brother.’ The Turkish leader was welcomed with maximum ceremony and genuine warmth, but the format of cooperation itself clearly points to equal relations in the economic and humanitarian spheres,” Ashimbayev argued. “Kazakhstan has its own clearly defined position on a broad range of international and domestic issues, and those positions are neither subject to outside discussion nor imply following anyone else’s political line,” he added. Alena Dmitriyeva, head of analysis and communications at the Youth Research Center, said the negotiations reflected the emergence of a new architecture of cooperation across Eurasia. “Ankara gains access to Central Asia, while Astana gains access to alternative transport routes,” Dmitriyeva said, pointing to intensified cooperation on the Trans-Caspian corridor, development of the Aktau and Kuryk ports, and increased oil shipments through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Cooperation with Turkey has already helped reduce cargo transit times along the Middle...

Critical Minerals

Central Asia Enters the Minerals Race

Central Asia is entering the critical minerals race at a time when deposits alone no longer confer strategic advantage. The Astana Mining & Metallurgy Congress, scheduled for June 11–12 at Hilton Astana, gives the issue operational form: supply chains, investment, and commercial projects. U.S. Under Secretary Jacob Helberg will participate there and in the preceding C5+1 Critical Minerals Dialogue on June 10–11. The Astana agenda also puts Central Asia’s role in global supply chains directly into view. The test is how quickly governments, investors, and industrial buyers can finance, process, move, and purchase minerals before they are locked into industrial supply chains. The G7 is moving in the same direction, but through institutional design rather than industrial action. The group is discussing a permanent critical minerals secretariat to maintain continuity across changing G7 presidencies, possibly at either the International Energy Agency or the OECD. The proposal acknowledges a real deficiency in Western coordination, but it also reveals the larger problem: continuity is useful only if it becomes execution. At the same time, reports have circulated about disagreements over stockpiling and leadership, including European resistance to both a single shared stockpile and a U.S.-led structure. For Central Asia, the practical question is not institutional architecture alone, but whether such coordination produces finance, processing capacity, and long-term offtake. The June dialogue in Astana is part of a wider C5+1 movement from diplomacy toward operational cooperation. Its participants are trying to convert the platform from a talk shop into a vehicle for business transactions. As TCA has reported, U.S. engagement in the region is increasingly tied to business mechanisms, export-credit support, and project finance. Kazakhstan has already moved into this framework track. Kazakhstan and the United States signed a memorandum of understanding on critical minerals cooperation during Tokayev’s November 2025 visit to Washington, and the agreement took immediate shape through the Tau-Ken Samruk–Cove Capital tungsten project. Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry later described the MOU as the first agreement of its kind in Central Asia, providing for processing capacity in Kazakhstan, technology transfer, and expanded access for Kazakh products to the U.S. market. In February 2026, Uzbekistan followed with its own U.S. critical minerals track: TCA reported that Tashkent signed a critical minerals MOU on February 4, and that DFC heads of terms for a Joint Investment Framework followed on February 19. Central Asian governments are not passive terrain for outside competition. Kazakhstan, with Central Asia’s most developed mining and metallurgical base, and Uzbekistan, with a rapidly expanding minerals program, are using minerals competition to attract capital and build processing capacity. They are seeking to diversify partners and move beyond dependence on raw material exports. The regional objective is industrial upgrading while preserving room for maneuver between China, Russia, the United States, Europe, and other partners. The minerals question cannot be separated from the larger Eurasian setting. Central Asia is trying to widen its own field of choice before its options are narrowed by what Hudson Institute senior fellow Ken Moriyasu called, in comments to...

CA5+UK

Opinion: UK’s C6 Engagement and the Opportunity for British Geostrategic Renewal

Along with Nicholas Spykman, Sir Halford Mackinder is one of the most pre-eminent thinkers in the field of geopolitics. Whilst today geopolitics is a term used interchangeably with “world affairs,” “international relations,” and “foreign policy,” Spykman and Mackinder used the phrase to describe the narrow academic study of how geography influences international relations and the conduct of states. In the 1904 paper, The Geographical Pivot of History, Mackinder theorized that the key to controlling the balance of power in the world rested in a “heartland” of Eurasia, comprising Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Mackinder described the heartland region as the “pivot region” for regional and global hegemony. The word “pivot” has recently been popularized in international relations, with examples including President Obama’s pivot to the Pacific and Britain’s Indo-Pacific pivot in the 2021 Integrated Review. In 1997, former U.S. National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski built on Mackinder’s ideas in his work, The Grand Chessboard. Brzezinski defined a geopolitical pivot as being “determined by their geography, which in some cases gives them a special role either in defining access to important areas or in denying resources to a significant player. In some cases, a geopolitical pivot may act as a defensive shield for a vital state or even a region.” To Mackinder and Brzezinski, Central Asia was a crucial geostrategic pivot. Central Asia - comprising the five states of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan, collectively termed the C5 - is located between China, Russia, Iran, and Afghanistan. Thus, the near abroad of the region is defined by conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Iran and Israel/U.S., and between Taliban-run Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pragmatic engagement is a necessity for the C5 but has not stopped them from pursuing greater diversification in security and economic arrangements, and they remain committed to U.S.-led diplomatic initiatives. Faced with a regionally assertive superpower in China, risks created by Russia’s war in Ukraine, theocratic Iran, and the Taliban in Afghanistan, Central Asia has continued to show its desire to build and deepen its economic and security partnerships from beyond traditional powers – such as China and Russia – to states in the Gulf, the Caucasus, Western Europe, and elsewhere. The United Kingdom has emerged as a new and important partner. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has raised concerns in the Central Asian states about its regional revisionism, territorial ambitions, and Putin’s reconstruction of the Soviet Union. In 2014, Putin credited Nursultan Nazarbayev with having “created a state in a territory that had never had a state before,” adding that “the Kazakhs never had any statehood.” The remarks sparked anger in Kazakhstan and fed concern about Moscow’s view of post-Soviet sovereignty. Finally, Putin said that it would be best for Kazakhstan to “remain in the greater Russian world.” In The Grand Chessboard, Brzezinski predicted that “Russia without Ukraine can still strive for imperial status, but it would then become a predominantly Asian imperial state, more likely to be drawn into debilitating conflicts with aroused Central Asians.” Central Asia has been a...

Mining

Astana Mining Congress to Highlight Kazakhstan’s Role in Critical Minerals

The 16th International Mining and Metallurgy Congress and Exhibition, Astana Mining & Metallurgy (AMM) 2026, will take place on June 11-12 at the Hilton Astana, bringing together mining and metals companies, investors, technology suppliers, government officials, and industry experts. The forum comes as Kazakhstan is trying to strengthen its position in the global critical minerals race. The country already has a large extractive base, but officials and industry groups are increasingly focused on processing, technology, and investment partnerships rather than raw-material exports alone. Kazakhstan’s appeal lies not only in the size of its mineral base, but also in the timing. The U.S. Department of Commerce says the country has substantial reserves of rare earth elements, copper, lithium, tungsten, tantalum, and other materials used in clean energy, advanced manufacturing, and defense technologies. The European Union has also signed a strategic partnership with Kazakhstan on raw materials, batteries, and renewable hydrogen, underscoring Astana’s growing role in efforts to diversify supply chains away from dominant producers. According to Kazakhstan's Bureau of National Statistics, the country's industrial production index reached 107.5% in 2025. Mining and quarrying grew by 9.4%, driven by higher production of coal, crude oil, natural gas, and other minerals. Organizers said the wider mining and metallurgical complex, including related industries such as mechanical engineering, logistics, energy, and industrial services, may account for up to a quarter of Kazakhstan's economy. Against that backdrop, they said the sector needs new investment, technological solutions, and expanded international partnerships. Alongside the congress, an international specialized exhibition dedicated to mining and metallurgical technologies will be held. The exhibition will feature solutions for geological exploration, extraction and processing of raw materials, industrial automation, and workplace safety. Companies from Germany, Kazakhstan, Canada, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Finland, France, the Czech Republic, and Sweden are expected to participate. National delegations from Canada, Saudi Arabia, the United States, and Sweden are also expected to attend. Among the new participants announced by organizers are INCO Engineering, ABP Engineering, David Brown Santasalo, and Actuator Service. Last year's event attracted about 2,900 industry professionals, while 50 companies participated in the exhibition. The business program will be held under the slogan “From the Depths of the Earth to the Heights of Intelligence,” with a focus on digitalization and technological transformation in the industry. The first day will include a plenary session on global partnerships in mining and metallurgy, as well as panel discussions on international metals trade, the investment climate, taxation, and critical minerals. Particular attention will be paid to copper's role as a strategic metal. Copper is central to electrification, grid expansion, and data infrastructure, making it one of the metals most closely tied to the energy transition. The critical minerals component gives the event a wider geopolitical significance. Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry said in April that Astana had invited the U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg to participate in AMM and the first C5+1 Critical Minerals Dialogue, both scheduled for June in Astana. The C5+1 format brings together the...