“Every time there’s a rocket launch at Baikonur, you can’t see for days. The sand comes up off the ground, and doesn’t shift for a good while,” a waiter in Aralsk, a one-time fishing town on what was once the shore of the shriveled Aral Sea told The Times of...
The Astana International Forum 2025 aims to address global challenges, foster international cooperation, and strengthen Kazakhstan's role as a bridge between regions and powers. The Times of Central Asia is in attendance, bringing you all the latest developments. [video width="1920" height="1080" mp4="https://timesca.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_5189-1.mp4"][/video] Follow our special coverage on the Astana International...
ASTANA – The United Nations, envisioned as a pillar of global cooperation, has often struggled to rise to the challenges it was created to address. Its inability to bridge cultural divides hampers meaningful solutions to regional issues, while structural weaknesses and the exclusion of diverse regional voices from the Security...
Kazakhstan plans to establish a pilot zone named "CryptoCity" to facilitate the free circulation of cryptocurrencies, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced at the Astana International Forum (AIF). “We plan to create an innovative pilot zone called CryptoCity, where cryptocurrencies can be used to purchase goods, services, and for other purposes,” Tokayev...
Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has called for expanding the United Nations Security Council to better reflect contemporary global dynamics. Speaking at the Astana International Forum (AIF), he emphasized that reforming the UN’s most powerful body is essential to restoring trust and maintaining international peace and security. The Security Council currently...
For Kazakhstan, strengthening ties with neighboring Central Asian states – as well as with Russia, China, and the West – is a top foreign policy priority. That, however, does not mean that the energy-rich nation is not also seeking to build stronger relations with other actors on the international stage....
In April, Kyrgyzstan signed a border delimitation agreement with southern neighbor Tajikistan, ending a long-running and at times violent feud along the two countries’ frontier. Now Kyrgyzstan is taking steps to resolve its border disagreements with its northern neighbor Kazakhstan. The Joint Project Representatives from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan met in...
Over the past two decades, air pollution levels in Kazakhstan have remained persistently high, despite numerous reform pledges and reported reductions in specific emissions. This is the conclusion of a recent study by analysts at Ranking.kz. Half the Country at Risk According to 2025 data from the international service Numbeo,...