DUSHANBE (TCA) — The Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Board of Directors has approved a $6.5 million grant as additional financing for the ongoing efforts to improve water resources management in the Pyanj River Basin, Tajikistan’s largest river basin, in the southern part of the country. The additional financing will be accompanied by a $5 million grant from the Green Climate Fund (GCF), to be administered by ADB, the Bank said on June 26.

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ASHGABAT (TCA) — Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on a German technology company to publicly disclose whether it is considering sales to Turkmenistan, and how it is addressing the possibility that its technology will be used by the Turkmen government to block websites and carry out surveillance in violation of human rights, RFE/RL reports.

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TASHKENT (TCA) — Authorities in Uzbekistan have released a U.S. citizen who was detained on suspicion of joining a terrorist group and fighting alongside Islamist insurgents in Afghanistan, RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service reported.

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BISHKEK (TCA) — A court in Kyrgyzstan has upheld a decision to extradite a Kazakh opposition activist to his homeland despite concerns by human rights activists that he could face torture and ill-treatment if returned, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service reported.

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BISHKEK (TCA) — The European Union-funded 9th phase of the Border Management in Central Asia (BOMCA) programme will be extended until December 14th, 2019. The decision was made by the European Commission and supported by all five Central Asian States. The European Union allocated an additional amount of 1.6 million EUR for the extension period, and therefore all five Central Asian countries have signed addendums to their financing agreements with the EU.

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ASTANA (TCA) — 2.5 million hectares of forest landscape will be restored by countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia under the Bonn Challenge by 2030. The commitment was made by Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan at the first Ministerial Roundtable on Forest Landscape Restoration and the Bonn Challenge in the Caucasus and Central Asia, held on 21-22 June in Astana, Kazakhstan. The meeting also adopted the Astana Resolution, committing the region to go beyond 2.5 million ha, and strengthen partnerships and regional cooperation to this end.

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