Turkmenistan - The Times Of Central Asia

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Digital Policy

Central Asia Common Digital Space Proposed at Astana Roundtable

Experts and business representatives from across Central Asia have proposed mutual recognition of electronic documents to make cross-border business easier. Their draft agreement also calls for closer alignment of rules on data and artificial intelligence. The draft Agreement on Cooperation among Central Asian States in Digital Policy and Artificial Intelligence Governance was presented at a regional roundtable in Astana on September 28. The business-led proposal aims to connect the region’s five digital markets, serving more than 80 million people. The initiative is being developed within B5+1, a business cooperation platform linking the United States and the five Central Asian states and designed as a private sector counterpart to the diplomatic C5+1 format. E-commerce and information technology are among its priority areas. Over the past year, the regional IT & AI working group has held consultations with entrepreneurs, industry associations, and experts. In the previous cycle, consultations involved business communities representing more than 60 companies and organizations from Central Asia and the United States, including Meta, Mastercard, and Google. Under the draft, the five countries would retain their own regulations while making their digital systems and laws more compatible. It covers electronic document management, digital identification, personal data protection, cybersecurity, and AI regulation. The proposals would allow electronic documents, electronic signatures, and digital identification tools to be recognized across borders. This could reduce administrative barriers for companies expanding into neighboring markets. “Our task is not to create another layer of regulation. We need to build digital bridges between the countries of Central Asia. If electronic documents, digital identification, data rules, and approaches to AI are mutually compatible, it will become significantly easier for technology companies to scale across the entire region,” said Aziza Shuzheeva, Chair of the Board of the TechnoWomen non-profit organization. A draft Code of Ethics for the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence in Central Asia was also presented in Astana. The document is advisory and sets out common ethical principles for the use of AI across the five countries. Its authors propose that decisions significantly affecting a person’s rights and interests should not be left solely to algorithms. Practices identified as unacceptable include harmful manipulation, exploitation of the vulnerabilities of children and other groups, discrimination, unlawful use of personal data, and the creation of synthetic content for fraud or other harmful purposes. Another priority is the development of language resources and datasets for Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Tajik, and Turkmen. The aim is to improve the ability of AI systems to work with the region’s languages. Similar forms of digital integration are already being developed elsewhere. In the European Union, the European Digital Identity framework is designed to allow digital identity wallets to be used across borders to access public and private services. ASEAN, meanwhile, concluded negotiations at the end of May 2026 on its Digital Economy Framework Agreement, or DEFA, covering digital trade, data, cybersecurity, AI, and other areas of regional digital integration. The proposals also overlap with efforts to digitize transport and trade. On September 28, the...

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...

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,...

Investment Forum

Ashgabat Hosts Turkmenistan Investment Forum This Week

Turkmenistan’s government says it expects more than 800 participants from dozens of countries to attend an investment conference in Ashgabat this week. A diverse group of more than 100 speakers is expected to participate in the Turkmenistan Investment Forum on October 1–2, including Saudi Prince Mansour bin Mohammed Al Saud, Deputy Trade Minister Mahmut Gürcan of Turkey, and Economy Minister Gevorg Papoyan of Armenia. The forum is being organized by Turkmenistan’s finance and foreign ministries, in partnership with Turkmen Congress, a company that organizes international forums and other events. It aims to highlight the country as a place of untapped economic potential, endowed with “the world’s fourth-largest natural gas reserves, a steadily diversifying economy, and major infrastructure modernization underway,” according to conference organizers. Turkmenistan is seeking to expand its role as a transit point on the Middle Corridor, a trade network linking China and Central Asia to Europe via rail and marine infrastructure. Even so, foreign investors have long had concerns about tight government controls, opaque bureaucracy, and other challenges in the Central Asian country. Delegates to the forum at the Yyldyz Hotel in Turkmenistan’s capital will discuss diversification of export routes for oil and gas, development of the Trans-Caspian Transit Corridor, public-private partnerships, agriculture, and the efficient use of natural resources. Representatives from the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and other international institutions will participate.

Independence Day

Turkmenistan Marks 35 Years of Independence Amid Reports of Shortages

Turkmenistan marked 35 years of independence on September 27 with a military parade and mass celebrations in Ashgabat. The festivities followed independent reports of food shortages and disrupted public transport in the capital. President Serdar Berdimuhamedov attended the parade at the State Tribune complex, where military units and armored vehicles passed before the country’s leaders. The official account described mounted formations and a simultaneous naval display on the Caspian Sea. A civilian procession followed, with decorated floats representing the country’s regions and economic sectors. Performers in traditional dress joined the celebrations, while the government presented Berdimuhamedov with an Akhal-Teke horse named Vatan. The anniversary program had begun before the holiday itself. On September 26, Berdimuhamedov attended a concert at Ashgabat’s Congress Center. According to state media, the performance included patriotic songs celebrating the president and his father, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, who chairs the Halk Maslahaty. Official coverage presented the anniversary as a demonstration of national unity and economic progress. The celebrations also provided an occasion for state awards, while the president signed a decree pardoning 1,054 convicted Turkmen citizens ahead of the anniversary, according to a September 26 government report. He instructed the defense minister and law enforcement officials to arrange for their release and return to their families. The report did not provide a breakdown of their convictions. A separate decree declared September 28 a non-working day and moved the day off falling on Sunday, September 27, to September 29, extending the holiday break through Tuesday. However, independent reporting from Ashgabat described pressures on everyday life during preparations for the anniversary. On September 22, Chronicles of Turkmenistan reported reduced supplies of meat and rising food prices in the capital. Its correspondents said chicken legs usually sold for 16 manats per kilogram ($4.57 at the official rate) had become difficult to find. Chicken previously priced at 35 manats per kilogram was available only intermittently at the Paýtagt shopping center, where it now cost 39 manats. Vegetables and potatoes had also become more expensive. Chronicles of Turkmenistan attributed this partly to reduced supplies from neighboring Iran. The reports reflect a longer-running pattern. The Times of Central Asia previously documented shortages and rationing in state food stores, where subsidized staples remained scarce despite rising prices. In a separate September 21 report, Chronicles of Turkmenistan said many of Ashgabat’s buses had been diverted to preparations for Independence Day and the September 23 Halk Maslahaty meeting. Vehicles were carrying performers and other participants to rehearsals, while ordinary passengers faced long waits. The report described overcrowded services during rush hour, and said some taxi drivers had doubled short-distance fares from 10 to 20 manats per passenger. Turkmenistan declared independence from the Soviet Union on October 27, 1991. The authorities moved the annual holiday to September 27 in 2018, so this year’s official celebrations preceded the historical anniversary by one month.