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UN General Assembly

Central Asia at the UN: Saida Mirziyoyeva to Represent Uzbekistan

Saida Mirziyoyeva, the head of Uzbekistan’s Presidential Administration and daughter of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, is expected to deliver the country’s address at the UN General Assembly’s general debate in New York. Her appearance comes as Central Asian delegations seek support for regional development and prepare for a larger role in UN diplomacy. On September 22, Gazeta reported that Mirziyoyeva would represent Uzbekistan in the debate. Her father delivered the country’s address last year. The report did not specify the proposals she would present. Mirziyoyeva met UN Secretary-General António Guterres on September 21. Her public account described discussions on cooperation with the UN, but provided no detailed negotiating agenda. The assignment follows her appointment as administration chief in June 2025, when the president restored a post abolished two years earlier. She had previously served as his assistant. This month, Mirziyoyev also appointed her to head the planned Tashkent International Financial Centre, which aims to attract private capital through tax incentives and a legal framework drawing on English common law principles. Mirziyoyeva’s UN appearance adds a major diplomatic assignment to her domestic responsibilities. She has addressed UN events before, including a water conference in 2023. Delivering Uzbekistan’s national statement in the General Assembly would give her a broader platform to present government policy. What is On the Agenda The general debate runs from September 22 to 26 and resumes on September 28. It is the centerpiece of the General Assembly’s high-level week, when world leaders address the UN and hold bilateral talks on the sidelines. The gathering is based at UN headquarters in New York, with additional events around the city. This year’s theme is “Restoring trust, managing transformation: A United Nations that delivers for all.” Practical discussions include reforming the organization and financing development. The European Council’s published priorities call for a more effective, cost-efficient UN and stronger international peace and security mechanisms. The week also brings diplomacy over the war in Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelenskiy is due to meet U.S. President Donald Trump in New York to press for a halt to attacks on energy infrastructure, Reuters reported. Those talks take place amid continuing strikes on power facilities and refineries. The week’s program includes separate meetings on climate action and a just transition on September 23, according to Kazakhstan Today. Pandemic prevention and preparedness will be discussed on September 25. Central Asia in New York The region’s countries are attending at different political levels. Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov is in New York after visiting Utah. His announced program combines participation in the UN gathering with meetings with national leaders and U.S. businesses. On September 21, Japarov met financial services group StoneX. The meeting produced memoranda involving Kyrgyzstan’s Finance Ministry and Eldik Bank, following discussions about precious metals trading and access to international financial services. Kyrgyzstan is also preparing for its 2027–2028 Security Council term. In a recent interview with The Times of Central Asia, Shumkarbek Adilbek uulu, director of the National Institute for Strategic Initiatives, described efforts to secure financing for...

Women’s Safety on Trains

Women-Only Carriages in Kazakhstan: What Has Changed After Five Years?

In 2018, two conductors aboard a Tulpar-Talgo train raped a female passenger in her compartment while she was traveling from Astana to Aktobe. The crime shocked Kazakhstan and brought the issue of women’s safety on trains into public debate. Three years later, the country’s first women-only carriages appeared on Kazakhstan’s railways. From October 1, 2026, a women-only carriage will operate between Almaty and Tashkent, crossing an international border for the first time. The international service will become the 14th route covered by the project. Over the past five years, female passengers have made more than 946,000 journeys in women-only carriages. Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ), the national rail operator, cites strong demand as the reason for continuing to expand the service. But the most important indicator is missing from the publicly available statistics: whether women have actually become safer on Kazakhstan’s trains. KTZ does not publish data on harassment and violence before and after the project was introduced. The Case that Prompted Action The legal battle over the 2018 attack lasted for more than a year. The original sentences of two years and six months for one conductor and two years and three months for the other were overturned by the Kostanay Regional Court, which sent the case back for further investigation because of procedural violations. Following a retrial, Zhetes Umbetaliyev and Kolkanat Kurmaniyazov were found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison each. In February 2020, the regional court upheld the sentences. When the women-only carriage project began on October 10, 2021, it covered just two routes: Almaty-Mangystau and Almaty-Oskemen. Boys aged seven and under may travel with adult female passengers. In the booking system, these seats are marked with the letters “ZH” (ЖН), and fares are the same as for comparable seats in regular carriages. In less than three months in 2021, 13,243 women used the service. More than 114,000 did so in 2022, and by January 2026, KTZ reported that the total had risen to approximately 822,000. A Popular Initiative The Times of Central Asia asked three women in Kazakhstan what the option of traveling in a women-only carriage means to them. Raushan Otan, a 46-year-old art historian from Almaty, has already used the service. “I like the women-only carriage. When you spend several hours traveling, you feel calmer when there are only women around you. It gives you a sense of safety and additional confidence.” Samira Olzhabekova, an 18-year-old school student from Taraz, has not yet traveled in one, but says she would choose it on a future journey. “I haven’t traveled in one myself yet, but I’ve heard a lot about how convenient and nice it is. I think there could be more carriages and services like this. If I were traveling by train, I would definitely choose a women-only carriage.” Valeria Kuznetsova, a 22-year-old student from Astana, frequently travels alone. “I often travel alone, so for me this is a genuinely good initiative. When you have the option of choosing a women-only carriage, you...

Educational Investment

Coventry Expands in Kazakhstan, Strengthening Central Asia’s International Education Center

Coventry University Kazakhstan marked the next stage of its expansion on September 21 with a capsule-laying ceremony for new facilities in Astana, adding to a growing network of British educational institutions operating in the country. Lord John Alderdice, the United Kingdom’s Trade Envoy to Azerbaijan and Central Asia, said the project represented more than the construction of another university building. “Today we are not simply marking the construction of a new building. We are investing in people, in knowledge, and in the future of Kazakhstan.” [caption id="attachment_56593" align="alignnone" width="300"] Lord John Alderdice, the UK Trade Envoy to Azerbaijan and Central Asia, speaks at the capsule-laying ceremony for Coventry University Kazakhstan’s new campus in Astana. Image: Coventry University Kazakhstan[/caption] Alderdice has served as the UK’s Trade Envoy to Azerbaijan and Central Asia since January 2025. He is also a member of the House of Lords and previously served as Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Coventry University Kazakhstan has grown rapidly since opening in September 2024. Alderdice said its first intake numbered 95 students. The Ministry of Science and Higher Education now reports more than 850 students. Alderdice said applications were coming from neighboring countries as well as Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan’s Minister of Science and Higher Education, Sayasat Nurbek, placed Coventry’s development within the country’s broader effort to invest in human capital and build skills relevant to Kazakhstan and the wider Central Asian region. Pointing to Kazakhstan’s natural resources, critical minerals, nuclear energy and agriculture, Nurbek emphasized that realizing their economic potential depends on developing the people and expertise needed to create greater value from them. [caption id="attachment_56594" align="alignnone" width="300"] Kazakhstan’s Minister of Science and Higher Education, Sayasat Nurbek, speaks at the capsule-laying ceremony for Coventry University Kazakhstan’s new campus in Astana. Image: Coventry University Kazakhstan[/caption] The expansion comes as Kazakhstan develops an increasingly international education sector, bringing foreign universities and schools into the country while seeking to attract students from across Central Asia. Kazakhstan’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Alibek Bakayev, placed Coventry’s expansion within the broader development of educational ties between Kazakhstan and Britain, linking it to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s emphasis on education. Bakayev explained that President Tokayev has made it clear that education is the foundation of the national economy and the country’s future, and that Kazakhstan must not only learn from the world but also bring the world’s best knowledge and practices to the country. He cited Coventry, Cardiff, De Montfort and Heriot-Watt universities, together with Ardingly and Charterhouse, as part of a growing education bridge between the two countries. The growing international education presence is also extending Kazakhstan’s reach beyond its domestic market. Coventry’s applications from neighboring countries provide one indication of that regional pull. Education Takes Larger Role in UK-Kazakhstan Relations Bakayev broadened the point to the overall relationship between Astana and London. He described education as one of the foundations of bilateral relations and pointed to the Kazakhstan-UK Strategic Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, saying it gives the relationship greater institutional depth across politics, trade, investment,...

Nature Investment

Opinion: Financing Nature: Why Biodiversity Investment Matters for Central Asia

Just imagine: only 50 years ago, wildlife was far more abundant across many of the world’s forests, grasslands, rivers, and seas. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature’s Living Planet Report 2024, the average size of monitored vertebrate populations fell by 73% between 1970 and 2020, based on data from almost 35,000 populations worldwide. That extraordinary decline has taken place within a single human lifetime. We are used to treating this as an environmental statistic, a sad fact trotted out in a nature documentary to which we have little emotional connection. Seen this way, we miss a vital truth: food, agriculture, construction, and forestry all depend immensely on natural systems. Pollination, water filtration, soil fertility, and flood control are among the functions that biodiversity provides for us. When that infrastructure fails, the economy built on top of it becomes more expensive, then less reliable, and eventually, in some places, unworkable. Emergency Room Most of what passes for environmental action today is triage. A river floods a city that paved over its wetlands, and engineers are called in to build higher walls. A heat wave kills crops, and governments subsidize irrigation for farmland that used to be forest. A fishery collapses, and the response is a moratorium, arriving years after the fish are already gone. This is the pattern across almost every domain of environmental policy: we manage consequences with enormous expense, and we manage causes almost as an afterthought. It is also the least efficient way to run a planet. Treating a symptom after it has metastasized costs orders of magnitude more than preventing it, financially as much as ecologically. Some of this triage is now unavoidable. The carbon already in the atmosphere will continue influencing the climate for years regardless of what we do next, while a great deal of the damage caused by air pollution is already locked in and can only be managed, not undone. These are debts we are stuck repaying. Biodiversity is often different because it is still substantially in our hands. A species pushed to the edge can, with sustained effort, be pulled back from it. A degraded watershed can, over a generation, recover its function. In Kazakhstan, recent estimates place the snow leopard population at between 152 and 189 animals, close to levels last recorded in the 1980s. The recovery has been associated with sustained monitoring and habitat protection. It demonstrates that when species and ecosystems are effectively managed and adequately protected, conservation measures can deliver tangible results by maintaining biodiversity and helping threatened species recover. That kind of recovery is rare in climate policy. This disconnect risks creating dangerous trade-offs. We cannot decarbonize an economy while continuing to bulldoze the ecosystems around it. An electric vehicle removes tailpipe emissions from a city street, and that is real progress. But it also requires critical minerals such as lithium, copper, nickel, and cobalt, whose extraction can carry substantial environmental costs. None of this is a criticism of electric vehicles. It is a reminder...

Oil Logistics

Kazakhstan’s Oil Logistics Trap: Higher Prices, Limited Gains

Escalation in the Middle East has pushed oil back above $100 a barrel. For Kazakhstan, whose budget remains heavily dependent on commodity exports, that should have been good news. But a high price matters only if the oil can reach buyers. For the world’s largest landlocked country, that is where the problem begins. European refiners are looking for alternatives to disrupted Saudi supplies, while problems along established routes through the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea are increasing demand for crude from other regions. More than 80% of Kazakhstan’s oil exports, however, move through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium system across Russian territory to a terminal near Novorossiysk. The Middle East crisis is pushing prices and global freight costs higher, while attacks around Russian infrastructure are increasing the risks to Kazakhstan’s main export route. Over the past decade, Kazakhstan has significantly increased its oil exports. According to the Bureau of National Statistics, volumes rose from 63.6 million metric tons in 2015 to a record 76.3 million tons in 2025, an increase of about 20%. Exports grew from 65.2 million tons in 2022 to 71 million in 2024 and 76.3 million tons in 2025. Expansion at the Tengiz field contributed to that growth. Kazakhstan’s oil and gas condensate production reached 99.6 million tons in 2025. The government had planned for about 98 million tons in 2026, but export disruptions have already forced temporary output cuts. Revenue has not risen as steadily as volumes. “In monetary terms, growth over the past decade was considerably stronger, although the trend, as noted above, was also much more volatile. The value of exports increased from $26.8 billion in 2015 to $40 billion in 2025, or by 49.3%. The highest figure during this period was recorded in 2022, at $46.9 billion,” Ranking.kz said in its analysis. Physical volumes and export revenue have often moved in different directions. “This was particularly evident in 2025: Kazakhstan exported 7.4% more oil than a year earlier, but its value fell by 6.8%. The average estimated value of one exported metric ton declined from $604 in 2024 to $524 in 2025,” the analysts calculated. In the first half of 2026, Kazakhstan exported $40.3 billion worth of goods. Crude oil and petroleum products accounted for 46.5% of the total. Export statistics and transportation data measure different things. The Bureau of National Statistics records goods cleared for export, while the Energy Ministry and pipeline companies report volumes pumped, transshipped, and transported. The same cargo can pass through several sections of the system, so those figures cannot simply be added together. In March, Talgat Makuov, acting director of the Energy Ministry’s oil refining and transportation department, said 64.8 million tons of Kazakh oil had moved through CPC in 2025. Another 9.2 million tons went through the Atyrau-Samara pipeline, while 1.1 million tons were shipped through the Atasu-Alashankou pipeline toward China. Against those volumes, the Trans-Caspian route remains small. In 2025, 1.26 million tons were shipped across the Caspian toward the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. The plan...

Almaty Culture

Yurts, Throat Singing, and Aport Apples at Almaty City Day

On Sunday, September 20, yurts, market stalls, activity areas, and stages lined Panfilov Street, extending downhill from the building that houses the Kazakh-British Technical University (KBTU). The flow of people barely thinned until evening. Almaty celebrates City Day on the third Sunday of September. This year, concerts and festivals were held on Astana and Abai squares, Zhibek Zholy Street, outside the Alatau Theater of Traditional Art, and across all eight districts. The busiest program unfolded on Panfilov Street in the historic center. The main stage was set up near the KBTU building. Completed in 1957, it was the seat of the Supreme Soviet of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic and later housed the parliament of independent Kazakhstan. It was here on December 16, 1991, that the constitutional law declaring Kazakhstan’s independence was adopted. The concert had no strict division by genre. Traditional throat singing, a vocal technique in which a singer produces a low note while bringing out higher overtones, gave way to folk dancing, followed by pop performers. The crowd remained dense as people moved between the main stage and nearby venues. Music changed along the length of Panfilov Street as visitors moved downhill. Some performers played outside the official program, while dombra musicians could be found beyond the festival area in other parts of the city. [caption id="attachment_56530" align="aligncenter" width="1280"] One of several music stages along the city streets.[/caption] At the Alma Digital area, traditional competitions were given a digital twist. In the archery event, the bow was real, but the target appeared on an LED screen, and the system displayed the arrow’s speed after each shot. In the tug-of-war challenge, a wall replaced the opposing team, while a screen measured the force applied in kilograms. Lines of children formed at both activities, regularly joined by adults. Yurts along the street offered felt goods, textiles, jewelry, and dombras. Children played games and watched performances, while other areas featured crafts, films, environmental projects, sports, and food. [caption id="attachment_56535" align="aligncenter" width="1280"] Traditional textiles.[/caption] An exhibition of archival photographs documented Almaty from the days of Verny through the postwar period. Visitors lingered over the images, trying to identify familiar streets and intersections. A separate area was devoted to the Alma Qala festival, where apples from farms around Almaty were brought for sale. According to Kazinform, more than 200 tons of fruit were supplied for the fair, ranging from widely grown varieties to the now much rarer Almaty Aport. The region’s connection to apples predates Aport, reaching back to Malus sieversii, the wild apple that still grows in the Tian Shan mountains and is recognized as the main progenitor of the modern cultivated apple. Genetic research traces the origins of domesticated apples to Central Asia and shows how other wild species contributed to their genetic makeup as cultivated varieties spread westward along the Silk Road. [caption id="attachment_56536" align="aligncenter" width="1280"] Apples gave Almaty its name.[/caption] Aport arrived in Verny in the 19th century and flourished in the foothills around the city, where its...