TASHKENT (TCA) — Iran says it is considering a request by Uzbekistan to export crude oil to the Central Asian country, Iran’s PressTV news agency reported on October 18.

Iran’s Petroleum Minister Bijan Zanganeh was quoted by local media in Tehran as saying that high-ranking Uzbek oil officials were already discussing imports from Iran with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).

“Uzbekistan’s oil production is limited. Therefore, it needs to import this strategic product,” Zanganeh was quoted as saying by Iran’s IRNA news agency. “Given that Uzbekistan has no access to sea, exports to the country need to be carried out through land and probably by rail,” he said after meeting the visiting Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov in Tehran.

The Iranian minister further emphasized that Tehran still needed to study the technicalities involved in exports of oil to Uzbekistan, stressing that the Islamic Republic supports the move as it could help strengthen relations between the countries.

During the years of US-led sanctions, Iran’s oil clients were limited to only five nations such as China, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey. However, the list expanded after the sanctions that had been imposed against the country as a result of disputes over its nuclear energy program were lifted in 2016.

Iran’s current oil export capacity stands at around 2.6 million barrels per day, most of which is shipped to Asia and a quarter to Europe.

ALMATY (TCA) — More than 500 government and business leaders from 18 countries in Central Asia, South Asia, and Europe are participating in the seventh annual Central Asia Trade Forum, which is taking place on October 18 and 19 in Almaty, Kazakhstan. This year, the event focuses on the theme of Future Growth: Trade, Transport & Horticulture. Attendees discuss how enterprises throughout Central Asia can better compete in the global economy and provide jobs for the region’s growing workforce, the USAID said in a press release.

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BISHKEK (TCA) — Kyrgyzstan Prime Minister Sapar Isakov late on October 18 held talks with Kazakhstan Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev in Astana to discuss the ongoing crisis on the Kyrgyz-Kazakh border, where vehicles and people have been stuck in long lines after Kazakhstan tightened customs checks from October 10.

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TASHKENT (TCA) — Landlocked countries of Central Asia, including Uzbekistan, badly need sea and rail transport routes for the transit and export of goods to foreign markets. One such transport corridor will soon connect Central Asia, across the Caspian Sea, to the Caucasus, Turkey, and Europe. We are republishing this article by Fuad Shahbazov on the issue, originally published by The Jamestown Foundation’s Eurasia Daily Monitor:

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BISHKEK (TCA) — The World Bank has been working in Central Asia for more than 20 years to support the region’s countries in their efforts to end poverty and boost shared prosperity for all, Lilia Burunciuc, World Bank Regional Director for Central Asia, wrote in her article entitled ‘Dream Bigger: Building the Middle-Class in Central Asia’, published on the Bank’s website on October 17, the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

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DUSHANBE (TCA) — Prosecutors in Tajikistan say that authorities have drawn up a registry of more than 300 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the Central Asian nation, a move purportedly aimed at protecting sexual minorities and halting the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reports.

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