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Jonathan Campion

Senior Editor

Jonathan Campion has worked in the Eurasia region since 2007. After leaving Exeter University with a degree in Russian Language, he worked as a writer, editor, analyst and translator for international law firms, market research firms and business forums serving the CIS region's major industries.

With a passion for Central Asia, he has covered the region in esteemed publications such as the Lonely Planet, Open Central Asia magazine, and National Geographic Traveler.

Jonathan's first book, about a sports team from the Eurasia region, was shortlisted at the Charles Tyrwhitt Sports Book Awards in 2025.

Articles

Silk Road Shipwrecks: Virtual Museum Opens Maritime Section

One of Central Asia’s most engaging new cultural projects took on a new dimension last month. The Silk Road Virtual Museum, an online collection of over 20 exhibitions of pre-16th-century Eurasian life and art, has recently opened a section for the ancient trade route’s maritime history. An initiative by the Institute of Asian Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands, the site allows visitors to move through themed rooms, just as they would wander through a physical museum. Beginning on a map of the world on the museum’s homepage, visitors click on the Silk Road locations that they wish to discover. Each pin on the map takes them to a video replicating a guided tour of art and artefacts from that place at a certain historical era. Just as in a real museum, each exhibit has an information panel explaining what the object is. Life on the Central Asian parts of the Silk Road is shown in exhibitions to Sogdian traders in Samarkand (6th-8th centuries), with camels often featuring in their ceramic art, and a room dedicated to ancient caravanserais (inns that provided lodging for travellers), including at Tash Rabat in Kyrgyzstan. Launched in 2024, the Silk Road Virtual Museum already displays over 1,300 objects in total. Their geographical reach mainly stretches from Venice to China, as the Silk Road is often imagined today – but there are collections from places as unexpected as Sweden and Indonesia. With the launch of the maritime section on 16 September, their scope now spans seas as well as deserts. Virtual visitors can travel along the coasts of the Indian Ocean, where there are already seven shipwreck exhibitions, each with its own unique story. The project is managed by VirtualMuseum360 and supported by an international network of scholars, who aim to make the Silk Road’s many eras and strands accessible to people wherever they are in the world. The web pages have two advantages over traditional museums, in that they are free to access and open 24/7. Leading the Silk Road Virtual Museum (SRVM) is Professor Richard Griffiths, the director of Leiden University’s ‘New Silk Roads’ programme. A distinguished economic historian who has specialised in the history of trade, during a spell teaching in the Chinese city of Chengdu, Griffiths took an interest in China’s Belt and Road Initiative. When he began to trace the policy’s history, he realised that the origins of China’s modern trade with the West can be found in the myths and realities of the ancient Silk Roads. The key to making SRVM work, he says, is collaboration. Griffiths tells The Times of Central Asia: “We’re not replacing real museums – we’re working alongside them. Everything we do depends on the knowledge of academics, archaeologists, and conservators. Together we can make heritage accessible to anyone, anywhere, without losing its depth or integrity.” “Our visitors are a real mix,” he adds. “Often people tell me they use SRVM before a trip, so that when they see objects in a real museum,...

6 months ago

Asia’s Top Three Towns for Air Quality All in Kazakhstan, Finds New Study

A new study into global air quality by the independent website HouseFresh has found that Kazakhstan is home to some of the world’s cleanest towns. The report also notes that one Kazakh city is also among the most polluted. Using data from IQAir’s 2024 research, HouseFresh examined the average PM2.5 level – the number of small particles in the air – for over 8,800 towns with a population over 10,000. It found that the world’s most polluted town is Byrnihat in India, with a PM2.5 level of 128.2 particles per cubic meter (µg/m³). The cleanest air globally is in the Kazakh town of Shu. Shu, a rail freight hub in the country’s southeastern Zhambyl region, close to the border with Kyrgyzstan, had an average PM2 level of 1.5 µg/m³ in 2024. Kazakhstan is in fact home to the three cleanest towns in Asia, with the next places after Shu being Zhezkazgan in the central Ulytau region (2.3 µg/m³), and the southwestern town of Beyneu, outside Mangystau (3.4 µg/m³). Kazakhstan’s government has pledged that the country will become ‘climate neutral’ by 2060. It is aiming for its towns to follow the lead of cities such as New York and Beijing, which have more than halved their air pollution with measures such as cleaner public transport, modernized heating systems, and emissions regulation. However, Kazakhstan generally ranks highly in lists of the most polluted countries, due to its large-scale and outdated industrial infrastructure. Dust in the south of the country can also affect air quality. Due to this, the much larger central city of Karaganda, a center for Kazakhstan’s coal mining industry, remains one of the world’s most polluted cities. With average PM2.5 levels of 104.8 µg/m³ in 2024, the impact on the health of its half a million residents is equivalent to them smoking over 1,700 cigarettes per year.

6 months ago

Central Asia Deepens Trade Links with India Amid Growing Economic Ties

Trade between the countries of Central Asia and India is growing, edging closer to the $2 billion mark and signaling a new phase in cooperation across the Eurasian continent. According to data from the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), this surge reflects the expanding economic footprint of both regions. Nikolay Podguzov, Chairman of the EDB, emphasized that Central Asia and India are not only continental neighbors but also markets with significant untapped potential. Of the bank’s seven member states, four — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan — form the heart of Central Asia. Their growing engagement with New Delhi is now setting the tone for broader regional cooperation. Strong Growth as a Foundation The economic fundamentals supporting this trend are healthy. Central Asia has maintained steady growth of around 4.5% annually, while India’s economy continues to expand even faster, at roughly 6% per year. But despite this positive backdrop, there are still logistical hurdles. Trade routes between India and Central Asia must pass through intermediary countries such as Iran, Russia, or Azerbaijan — each adding layers of bureaucracy, customs costs, and delays. Experts argue that overcoming these transit bottlenecks will be crucial if India and Central Asia are to unlock the full potential of their partnership. New initiatives like the International North-South Transport Corridor and discussions on India’s role in developing Chabahar Port in Iran reflect ongoing efforts to make these pathways more efficient. Kazakhstan: The Leading Partner Kazakhstan is India’s largest trading partner in Central Asia, with bilateral trade crossing $1 billion — more than half of the region’s total trade with India. Astana supplies uranium, which is important for India’s civilian nuclear energy program, along with crude oil and steel products. In return, India exports pharmaceuticals, textiles, and consumer goods, with exports valued at around $260 million. The two countries also collaborate in strategic sectors such as energy security and defense. In 2022, India and Kazakhstan conducted joint military drills under the Kazind exercise, which reflects a broadening relationship beyond commerce. Uzbekistan: A Growing Market Trade with Uzbekistan has risen steadily, approaching $500 million in bilateral turnover, while India’s exports to Uzbekistan are valued at around $1.3 billion. Pharmaceuticals, machinery, and agricultural products dominate New Delhi’s exports, while Uzbekistan provides fruits, minerals, and cotton to the Indian market. Uzbekistan and India recently increased engagement through forums like the India-Central Asia Dialogue, where issues of connectivity, counterterrorism, and energy cooperation are regularly discussed. Tajikistan: Small but Strategic Although trade volumes with Tajikistan hover around $100 million, the partnership has strategic importance. Aluminium from Tajikistan’s massive TALCO smelter is a key export, while India provides medicines and consumer goods to Tajikistan. Beyond commerce, Dushanbe is a vital security partner for New Delhi. India operates a military facility in Tajikistan — the Farkhor Air Base, its only such presence abroad. Kyrgyzstan: Modest Trade, Strong Ties Kyrgyzstan’s trade with India is relatively small, at about $50 million, but the relationship is significant in the context of regional institutions like the Eurasian Economic Union...

6 months ago

Turkmenistan and Qatar Build Closer Ties at Doha Summit

As Doha readies an emergency Arab-Islamic Summit, Turkmenistan and Qatar have moved to underscore a steadily warming relationship. On Sunday, Turkmenistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov met Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on the sidelines of the summit, a show of solidarity with Qatar after this month’s attack attributed to Israel. Qatar’s Foreign Ministry also reported a separate meeting between Meredov and Minister of State for International Cooperation Maryam Al-Misnad during the ministerial preparations, where both sides discussed ways to deepen ties. Indeed, Ashgabat’s presence in Doha on the eve of the summit offers political cover for expanded cooperation, and adds a Central Asian voice to backing Qatar’s mediation role in the war in the Middle East. The relationship is not new. Doha and Ashgabat established diplomatic ties in 1996, opened a Qatari embassy in Ashgabat in 2014, and upgraded political contact with a state visit by President Serdar Berdimuhamedov to Qatar in March 2023. Turkmenistan also inaugurated its embassy in Doha. The Qatari side later highlighted that 17 agreements and memorandums of understanding were signed across economic, cultural and sporting fields. Momentum has built through 2025. On March 16, Meredov met Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani in Doha to prioritise energy, investment and transport, and to brief on the Serhetabat–Herat section of the TAPI gas pipeline inside Afghanistan. Turkmen statements said Qatar “highly appraised” cooperation on the project, while the Turkmen Foreign Ministry framed the visit as a step forward. Qatar’s visibility in Turkmenistan also rose in August when Doha sent a delegation to the UN’s Third Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries, hosted in the Awaza coastal zone -- the Turkmen government's marquee venue for foreign investors. That forum dovetails with Turkmenistan’s pitch that logistics, energy and tourism can be built out with Gulf capital and know-how. For Turkmenistan, cooperation with Qatar matters for three reasons. The first is energy strategy. Turkmenistan sits on the world’s fourth-largest proven gas reserves, yet remains constrained by export routes and customer concentration. The World Bank and regional energy think tanks have long flagged Ashgabat’s reliance on pipeline gas to China, and the need to diversify destinations and modalities. Pairing with Qatar -- currently the world’s third-largest LNG exporter -- offers access to market expertise, contract structuring and investment models that could help Turkmenistan de-risk projects like TAPI and swaps via Iran. The second reason is capital. The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has been signalling a more aggressive deployment cycle, buoyed by anticipated LNG windfalls and new programmes to crowd in venture funds and international managers to Doha. While no Turkmen-specific commitments have been announced, Ashgabat’s priority sectors -- transport links to Afghanistan and the Caspian, petrochemicals, and hospitality at Awaza -- fit the kind of long-dated infrastructure and real-asset plays that Gulf sovereigns favor. Third is private-sector linkage. Since 2023, business councils and chambers have stepped up exchanges, including a March 2025 Qatar Chamber event for a Turkmen trade delegation and the creation of...

7 months ago

Kyrgyzstan Adopts the Snow Leopard as Its National Symbol

The snow leopard logo will become a national symbol of Kyrgyzstan and will be used at the state level, according to Erkinbek Mamayev, head of the Wildlife Department at the Ministry of Natural Resources, Ecology and Technical Supervision. The move follows President Sadyr Japarov’s December 2023 decree recognizing the snow leopard as an official emblem of the republic. The Cabinet of Ministers has been tasked with developing the logo and ensuring its use across government, cultural, and promotional initiatives. Elena Bosler-Guseva, the Bishkek-based author of the children's book In the Footsteps of the Little Snow Leopard Brothers, told The Times of Central Asia: “The snow leopard has always been a sacred animal for Kyrgyz. The Kyrgyz people’s nomadic culture is characterized by its special relationship with the natural world, and it has long been believed that they watch over our warriors to protect them. They represent beauty, strength and freedom in our legends and fairy tales.” For the reclusive cat to be officially adopted as a national symbol, coordinated action is needed between government agencies, scientific and educational institutions, public and international organizations. A key aim of the draft law is to further protect the species, as well as maintain its sustainable coexistence with humans. It is hoped that the snow leopard’s new status will make it easier to increase the snow leopard population, allow more protected areas to be created, and generate more resources for Kyrgyzstan’s authorities to monitor their habitats and combat poaching. Bosler-Guseva expanded on how the government’s proposed law will help snow leopards themselves, adding: “Sadyr Japarov’s order to recognise them as Kyrgyzstan’s national symbol will strengthen the government’s support for initiatives to protect the snow leopard and its habitat”.

7 months ago