Transport and Logistics - The Times Of Central Asia

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Japanese Company to Build Tunnel on Kyrgyzstan’s Strategic Bishkek-Osh Highway

Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of Transport and Communications has signed a contract with Japan’s Takenaka Civil Engineering Co. for the construction of a 750-meter tunnel along the critical Bishkek-Osh highway. The project will be carried out at the highway’s 400-kilometer mark and is scheduled to begin in June 2025. The signing ceremony on April 15 was attended by Kyrgyz Transport and Communications Minister Absattar Syrgabayev, Japanese Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Hideki Goda, and Kawamoto Hiroyuki, Permanent Representative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Kyrgyzstan. Minister Syrgabayev expressed gratitude to the Japanese government and JICA for their ongoing support in developing Kyrgyzstan’s transport infrastructure. Strategic Significance The Bishkek-Osh highway is the only overland route linking Kyrgyzstan’s north and south, making it vital to the country’s economic, social, and political cohesion. The 655-kilometer artery cuts through four western regions, Chui, Talas, Jalal-Abad, and Osh, connecting the capital Bishkek with Osh, the country’s second-largest city. In addition to its domestic role, the Bishkek-Osh highway is a key part of several international transport corridors, linking Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and China. Enhancing the reliability and safety of this route is a top infrastructure priority for the Kyrgyz government. Delays to Alternative Route As reported by The Times of Central Asia, Kyrgyz authorities have postponed the opening of the long-anticipated North-South alternative highway to 2026. Originally set for completion in May 2025, the 433-kilometer project has been delayed to allow for additional infrastructure development.

Central Asia‐EU Summit EU-Central Asia Summit EU-Central Asia Relations Transport and Logistics Investment EU Cooperation Green Energy

Samarkand Declaration Paves the Way for a Stronger Central Asia–EU Partnership

The inaugural Central Asia-European Union Summit, held in Samarkand on April 3-4, marked a significant milestone in strengthening ties between the two regions. According to Sherzod Asadov, press secretary to Uzbekistan's President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the summit's most significant outcome is the adoption of the Samarkand Declaration, which is expected to provide strong momentum for expanding constructive dialogue and cooperation across all sectors. In a statement, the EU reaffirmed its "commitment to deeper cooperation in an evolving global and regional geopolitical landscape [and] upgrade relations between the European Union and Central Asia to a strategic partnership." The EU declaration also committed the bloc to respect the "sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states within the framework of all international and regional fora" and expressed readiness to "address common security challenges." Strengthening Economic Ties Economic cooperation featured prominently on the agenda. Since 2020, trade between Uzbekistan and the EU has doubled, now exceeding €6 billion. Uzbek exports to the EU have quadrupled, and the number of joint ventures has surpassed a thousand. European investment projects in Uzbekistan, meanwhile, are now valued at over €30 billion. A key development was the agreement to open a regional office of the European Investment Bank (EIB) in Tashkent. Established in 1958, the EIB is the EU’s primary financial institution, and its new office is expected to attract greater investment in green energy, modern infrastructure, and digitalization. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has also deepened its engagement in Uzbekistan, investing over €5 billion to date. “We must work together to simplify trade procedures and ensure that Central Asian products gain greater access to European markets. Only through joint efforts can we build a strong and resilient economic partnership,” Mirziyoyev told Euronews. "Over the past seven years, the trade turnover between Central Asian countries and the EU has quadrupled, amounting to 54 billion euros... The signing of the Samarkand Declaration will reflect the common aspiration of the parties to establish a strategic partnership and lay the foundation for deepening ties between our regions." During the summit, Mirziyoyev met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa. Discussions focused on trade, investment, green energy, and digital development, with the EU’s "Global Gateway” strategy, a counterpart to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a central topic. The initiative is seeking to enhance global infrastructure and connectivity while promoting sustainability and transparency. “The EU and Central Asia are becoming closer partners, and this summit marks the beginning of a new phase in our cooperation,” von der Leyen stated. An Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between Uzbekistan and the EU is also under negotiation. Regional Dialogue Among Central Asian Leaders The Summit also offered a platform for Central Asian heads of state to hold bilateral discussions. Mirziyoyev met with his counterparts from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. Talks centered on increasing trade, improving border security, and advancing major infrastructure projects. A recent landmark border agreement between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan was lauded as a breakthrough. Uzbekistan...

Kyrgyz Lawmaker Uzbekistan Transport and Logistics Protest Car drivers road traffic tinting fee Kyrgyzstan Tint Fee Vehicle

Kyrgyz Lawmaker Challenges $15 Tint Fee for Drivers Crossing into Uzbekistan

Kyrgyz drivers crossing into Uzbekistan are being charged a $15 fee if their vehicle windows are tinted, a policy that has drawn criticism from Kyrgyz lawmaker Dastan Bekeshev. Speaking during an April 2 session of the Jogorku Kenesh (Supreme Council of Kyrgyzstan), Bekeshev urged the government to either introduce a reciprocal fee for Uzbek vehicles entering Kyrgyzstan or to negotiate with Tashkent to eliminate the charge altogether. Addressing Foreign Minister Jeenbek Kulubaev, Bekeshev explained that many Kyrgyz citizens regularly travel between Jalal-Abad and Batken, routes that often require passage through Uzbek territory. “They charge $15 for every car with tinted rear windows, almost every day. But we don’t charge them anything,” he said. The fee is collected via Uzbekistan’s MBANK mobile application, streamlining payment for drivers. Many Kyrgyz citizens consider the charge unjustified and burdensome. Tinting regulations differ significantly between the two countries. In Kyrgyzstan, individuals must pay 50,000 KGS (around $576) annually to tint their vehicle windows, while businesses pay 70,000 KGS (about $807). In Uzbekistan, rear window tinting is permitted at no cost, but tinting front windows costs approximately 3 million UZS (around $234) per year. Kulubaev acknowledged that the issue had not been formally raised before but assured lawmakers that it would be examined. “We can discuss this on a mutual basis and bring it up at an intergovernmental commission meeting,” he stated. Uzbekistan introduced the $15 fee in 2018 through a government decree aimed at regulating vehicle window tinting. Proceeds from the fee are directed to the state budget. The debate now centers on whether Kyrgyzstan should adopt a reciprocal policy or seek a bilateral agreement to eliminate the fee, a decision that may set a precedent for broader discussions on regional transportation and cross-border regulations.

Middle Powers TITR Transport and Logistics Middle Corridor Turkey

How Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan Are Rewiring the Middle Corridor

Kazakhstan's acceleration of its strategic alignment with Azerbaijan signals more than bilateral convergence. It reflects a deeper structural reconfiguration of Eurasian connectivity, a reconfiguration that is not additive but integrative. As documented in multiple announcements and institutional moves across March 2025, their cooperation has crossed the threshold from parallel development to systemic coordination. This evolving dynamic illustrates the emergence of a regionally endogenous axis that, without proclaiming itself as such, is shaping the wider functional geometry of Eurasia. At the material core of this shift is the Middle Corridor — the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) — linking China to Europe via Central Asia, the Caspian Sea, and the South Caucasus. While long viewed as a technical alternative to the Northern and Southern corridors, the Middle Corridor is now exhibiting the dynamics of what in systems theory would be called self-amplifying dynamic feedback loops. (The technical term is “autopoiesis,” literally “self-creation” of “self-production.”) In particular, institutional feedback, infrastructure reinforcement, and regulatory adaptation are all feeding into one another in ways characteristic of an autonomously emergent macroregional logic. Kazakhstan’s announcement in December 2024 of the financing of a new terminal at Alat port in Azerbaijan, on which construction began in 2025, illustrates this logic in material form. Simultaneously, Kazakhstan is upgrading its Aktau port, backed by Chinese capital from Lianyungang, to triple its container throughput by 2028. This situation exemplifies the transformation of quantity into quality. Specifically, the upgrades are instantiating a network strategy that values not only volumes but also redundancy, flexibility, and strategic optionality. The new fiber-optic cable agreement signed in March 2025 further reinforces this convergence. A 380-kilometer undersea connection between Sumqayit and Aktau — part of the broader Digital Silk Road — will reduce latency between the two countries from hours to milliseconds. In system-theoretic terms, this is not merely a technical augmentation. It converts the corridor from a physical transit route into a distributed digital platform capable of supporting real-time adaptive coordination. This shift from “throughput” to “synchronization” is foundational. It also deepens the infrastructure-energy-information triad that has become characteristic of new macroregional systems. Kazakhstan’s expanded use of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, projected to carry 1.7 million tons of its oil in 2025, is not simply diversification. It is the strategic concretization of Azerbaijan’s role as a downstream node for Central Asian hydrocarbons. This is occurring alongside green transition signaling, including a modest floating solar project at Lake Boyukshor and a trilateral renewable energy agreement between Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan. The repurposing of hydrocarbon corridors for hybrid energy flows is not substitution but overlay, in effect a dual-pathway system. Meanwhile, capital commitment is reinforcing the commercial aspect. A $300 million joint investment fund announced by the two countries has already designated the construction of an intermodal terminal at Alat as its inaugural project. Additional integration comes from the UAE-backed $50 million grain terminal at Kuryk, which will further diversify the system's carrying capacity by drawing agro-logistics into the corridor's functionality. In my recent article on the...

Bilateral Relations Transport and Logistics Rare Earth Elements U.S.A

Kazakhstan’s Geoeconomic Rise and Why the U.S. Must Act Now – Opinion

The recent call between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Kazakhstan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Murat Nurtleu highlights an evolving but structurally inevitable dynamic: the growing convergence of interests between Washington and Astana. Kazakhstan has been explicit about its priorities — independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and balanced external relations. The U.S. has strategic imperatives that align directly with what Kazakhstan can offer, particularly in the domains of supply chain diversification, energy security, and critical minerals. The two countries now have the opportunity, reinforced by shifts in global economic and security networks, to establish a substantive and resilient bilateral relationship. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan has pursued an adaptive strategy of multi-vector diplomacy. This balancing mechanism is not merely a preference but rather an intrinsic requirement for preserving its sovereignty in a structurally asymmetric regional environment that is dictated by its geostrategic positioning. U.S. policymakers should recognize that Kazakhstan’s entanglements with Russia through security frameworks and its economic cooperation with China are not exclusionary choices. They are stabilizing counterweights that act to sustain Kazakhstan’s agency. The U.S. must embed itself within this framework. This means serving as a complementary pillar of economic and strategic equilibrium and not supplanting those existing ties. That means Washington’s approach has to pivot. For too long, U.S. engagement with Kazakhstan has been episodic and reactive, lacking internal logic and conditioned by external crises. Diplomatic rhetoric on democratic values and governance, while relevant, cannot substitute for material economic and strategic interdependence. For the U.S. to secure a meaningful place in Kazakhstan’s geopolitical architecture, it must offer tangible incentives through structured economic integration that reinforces Astana’s sovereignty. The two countries’ geoeconomic interests coincide most strongly in the issue areas of energy security, critical minerals, and telecommunications infrastructure. Vulnerabilities exposed by recent global shocks have forced the U.S. to recalibrate toward supply chain resilience. In this context, redundancy and diversification are no longer inefficiencies but have become security imperatives. Kazakhstan’s relevance to these concerns is a direct consequence of its resource endowments and logistical positioning. Energy security is the first pillar of stabilization. Kazakhstan, one of the world’s foremost uranium producers and a major oil and gas supplier, has continually expanded non-Russian export corridors westward to reduce its dependence on Russian transit routes. The U.S., having maintained a legacy of investment in Kazakhstan’s energy sector, should now move toward embedding its involvement within these diversified export pathways. This win-win solution would ensure that Kazakhstan’s resource flows are not beholden to Russian infrastructure bottlenecks. Critical minerals represent the second pillar. The U.S. legislative push under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the CHIPS Act mandates a diversification of supply chains for rare earth elements (REEs) and other critical materials. Kazakhstan’s reserves of REEs, copper, and other industrial inputs logically make it an important node in a decentralized, resilient industrial network. However, investment must not remain exclusively extractive in nature. The objective must be to integrate Kazakhstan into midstream processing and value-added production, again producing...

Transport and Logistics railroads Transport Infrastructure Railway Development

Modernization of Kazakh Railway Infrastructure is a Priority

According to the National Infrastructure Plan of the Republic of Kazakhstan until 2029, the overall level of wear and tear of the railroad network is about 50%. In addition, the qualitative characteristics of the track do not meet current business demands and are inferior to other countries in terms of its development. In order to improve the quality and guarantee reliable and safe transportation of passengers and cargo by rail, KTZ plans to repair about 11,000 km of railway sections by 2029. According to JSC NC Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, which operates the country's railway mainline network, 1,430 km of track was repaired as part of last year's summer track works, including 570 km of major railway track overhauls. As Sakеn Rakhmetov, Brach Director of KTZ’s Mainline Network Directorate, told The Times of Central Asia, train speed improvements were achieved on 413 km of track for passenger trains with Talgo cars, 605 km for passenger trains, and 406 km and 507 km for freight and container trains, respectively. In the upcoming season, which will begin in March, 1,480 km of track across the country are planned for repair, including 512 km of major overhauls. "Repair work will be carried out on key railway sections with heavy train traffic. The first projects are planned on the Beineu-Mangystau, Zhambyl-Tyulkubas, Shu-Almaty, and Makat-Aksarayskaya sections," Rakhmetov explained. KTZ has developed a corresponding Program for the Development of Railway Infrastructure Capacity. Several modernization and reconstruction projects are planned, including upgrades to signaling, centralization, and blocking systems. "A limiting factor in the railway infrastructure's throughput capacity is the processing ability of stations, as well as the useful length of receiving and departure tracks. With the introduction of modern locomotive types and the increasing share of container trains, both train weight and composition length have grown, while station infrastructure has remained unchanged. For instance, 59% of stations and passing loops currently cannot accommodate long trains. Therefore, by 2029, the development of approximately 200 stations and junction points is planned. This year alone, work is set to begin on 31 stations," Rakhmetov stated. Notably, to increase the processing capacity of railway stations, a Sorting Systems Development Program was approved in 2024. As part of this program, work will begin this year on modernizing the sorting system at Karaganda-Sortirovochnaya station. Overall, by 2029, Kazakhstan plans to construct 5,000 km of new railway lines and repair 11,000 km of tracks, with 2,800 km already having been renovated over the past two years. Regarding the modernization of station buildings and passenger platforms, efforts to provide high-quality services to the population saw the completion of routine repairs on 36 stations in 2024. Architectural lighting was installed at the Astana-1 and Kurort-Borovoe stations, while heating systems were repaired at 16 stations. In total, between 2024 and 2029, 54 stations across the country will undergo modernization and major renovations at an estimated cost of 100 billion tenge ($204 million).