Portugal's veteran forward Cristiano Ronaldo marked a personal milestone as his team opened its World Cup campaign with a convincing 5-0 victory over Uzbekistan. In a one-sided group-stage match, Portugal controlled possession and territory from the first whistle, turning pressure into goals across both halves. Ronaldo was among the scorers, adding to a long list of tournament achievements and drawing loud applause from the crowd as teammates piled on another finish. Uzbekist

Центральная Азия сегодня представляет собой динамично развивающийся регион с уникальными экономическими особенностями и значительным потенциалом для роста. В последние годы здесь наблюдаются важные изменения, которые формируют новые тренды и влияют на экономическую структуру стран. В этом материале я подробно рассмотрю ключевые направления развития, вызовы и возможности, которые определяют будущее региона. Основные тренды экономики региона Экономика Центральной Азии претерпев

Subheadline: Victory bolsters prime minister’s westward tilt, yet falling short of a supermajority leaves a key element of a U.S.-backed peace formula stalled and raises hard questions for Moscow ties Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan secured a clear parliamentary victory on June 7, but his ruling party did not capture the extra seats needed to unilaterally change the constitution — a shortfall that could stall a constitution-linked peace settlement with Azerbaijan. The

A Washington think tank has proposed a sweeping program to redirect fossil-fuel shipments out of the Persian Gulf overland through Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Turkey, sending crude and gas to Mediterranean and European markets rather than through the Strait of Hormuz. The New Lines Institute’s “Four Seas” blueprint envisions a consortium to raise as much as $10 billion to build conduits capable of moving about 4 million barrels of oil per day and roughly 50 billion cubic meters o

Armenia has asked the Eurasian Economic Commission to overturn broad Russian restrictions on its agricultural exports, setting up a legal and political clash that could erode trust in the Russia-led customs bloc. Yerevan lodged the complaint after Moscow’s agricultural watchdog banned a wide assortment of Armenian produce from entering Russian markets, citing failures to meet sanitary and traceability rules. The measures affect fresh food, seeds, ornamental plants and fertili

U.S. and Uzbek officials on June 9 in Tashkent endorsed a memorandum intended to deepen commercial ties by making it easier for companies from both countries to meet, negotiate and invest. The agreement, signed by U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce David Fogel and Uzbek Minister of Investment Laziz Kudratov, targets expanded activity in extractive industries, energy, software and digital services, agriculture and artificial intelligence. The memorandum lays out steps to org

Chinese officials and Kazakh leaders reached preliminary understandings last week on two dozen projects to build Alatau City, an ambitious new urban center north of Almaty that President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has promoted as a high-tech business and finance hub. The agreements, unveiled at a promotional event in Shenzhen, cover everything from next-generation battery manufacturing and large-scale energy storage to electric-vehicle infrastructure, industrial campus constructio

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev met June 15 with Ben Black, chief executive of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, to discuss a possible permanent DFC office in Astana and cooperation across critical minerals, transport links, agriculture, digital projects and artificial intelligence. The talks are part of Astana’s bid to turn recent diplomatic contacts with Washington into tangible investment and technology partnerships. A DFC footing on the ground

Kazakhstan on Monday signed a $10 billion agreement with U.S. chipmaker Nvidia and Armenian-American cloud firm Firebird.ai to build a large-scale data center complex near Ekibastuz in the Pavlodar region, officials said. The government described the scheme as a cornerstone of its effort to pivot the economy toward digital services, with construction of the first phase slated to begin ahead of a planned 2027 opening. Under the initial portion of the deal — half of the total p

Bishkek’s annual film festival is pushing to turn the Kyrgyz capital into a regional center for filmmakers, industry deals and local audiences hungry for more homegrown cinema. Organizers said the event, now in its latest edition, drew several thousand attendees and screened a broad mix of short and feature films from across the region and beyond. They stressed that roughly one-fourth of the program came from Kyrgyz directors, while about one-third represented neighboring cou

Uzbek officials aim to keep more of the profits from their mineral wealth while courting foreign technical know-how. TASHKENT — Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan signed a package of pacts June 16 that will see Azerbaijani companies take leading roles in developing Uzbek mineral projects, including a major gold field, officials said. The agreements, concluded during a ministerial visit, also cover banking cooperation and a tourism investment in the Jizzakh region. Under the mining arr

AIRUN, a Bishkek-based technology firm, says it has developed what it regards as the country's largest collection of Kyrgyz-language material and is now deploying that work in government services and private-sector systems. The company’s chief executive described to TimesCA how the platform converts spoken Kyrgyz into formal documents for public institutions, runs Kyrgyz-language chat and voice assistants for banks and media, and is preparing to install similar services at th

Kyrgyz Prime Minister Adylbek Kasymaliev used a high-profile investment forum in Tashkent on Wednesday to press investors for projects tied to a regional economic push, saying his government is ready to welcome deals that aren’t conditioned on political strings. Speaking at the opening of the fifth Tashkent International Investment Forum, he framed Kyrgyzstan’s appeal around a domestic development plan that targets accelerated industrial growth, a shift toward exports and dig

Uzbekistan unveiled detailed plans for a sprawling New Tashkent development that officials say will shift most government activity and create large swaths of housing, offices and public space over the coming decade. The first construction phase is scheduled to run through 2031, and authorities expect roughly nine out of ten ministries, agencies and government bodies to move into a new administrative hub that is already hosting some relocated units. The master plan covers an i

Uzbekistan announced a $4.2 billion investment plan to build smelters and refineries that will convert raw ore into higher-value metals for batteries and electronics, officials said. TASHKENT — The Central Asian government unveiled a multi-year program aimed at turning mineral exports into finished products, seeking to shrink shipments of unprocessed ore by about one-half and to capture more revenue at home. The package calls for construction of multiple processing facilities

Amanat and Adilet announced plans to join forces in an agreement aimed at consolidating the pro-government camp ahead of upcoming parliamentary elections, party officials said Tuesday. The parties said the merger — to be finalized at separate ratifying congresses in the coming weeks — will unify candidate selection, campaign operations and regional party structures. Leaders described the move as a step to present a single platform for voters and to avoid splitting support amo

Team Great Britain will arrive in Kyrgyzstan this summer to take part in the World Nomad Games, joining competitors from across Central Asia in a program that mixes traditional contests and community celebration. The British delegation will contest events including tug-of-war while rubbing shoulders with kok boru riders, eagle hunters, archers and wrestlers. Organizers say the squad this year contains a noticeably larger share of women than in past outings, a shift campaigner

Pakistan has put into effect six overland corridors linking its three main seaports — Gwadar, Karachi and Port Qasim — to Iranian border crossings at Gabd and Taftan, a move that has already begun shifting cargo bound for Iran and Central Asia off ships and onto trucks. The measure followed an order issued April 25 by Pakistan’s commerce ministry permitting third-country goods to transit Pakistan en route to Iran, and comes amid disruption to maritime trade after air and miss

Afghanistan Framed As Transit Hub And Stability Booster During Tashkent Talks; Sanctions, Recognition and Finance Remain Obstacles TASHKENT — Senior officials from countries across Central and South Asia met June 4 under the Termez Dialogue banner and reached near-universal agreement that Afghanistan needs to be folded into regional commerce networks, even as they left most operational details unresolved. Delegates said Afghanistan offers the shortest land corridor for severa

John Lee’s delegation returned from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan with a stack of memorandums and contracts totaling about one and two-thirds billion dollars, yet the haul did not match earlier, far larger projections announced by Kazakh officials. While Hong Kong recorded 96 agreements during the trip — 61 with Kazakhstan and 35 with Uzbekistan — many of the accords lack publicly available details, leaving observers to question how many are binding projects versus preliminary un