The question now confronting negotiators is what should happen to that stockpile as part of a broader agreement between Tehran and Washington. In recent weeks, Kazakhstan has been mentioned as a possible third-party custodian.
For nearly three months, Nartai Zhengis, who lives in Kazakhstan, has not heard directly from his father, Zhengis Reskhan a prominent ethnic Kazakh writer and satirist from China’s Xinjiang region.
Data compiled by RFE/RL reveals how a surge in high-level diplomacy, economic engagement, and regional initiatives has elevated Beijing from a neighboring power to Central Asia’s leading economic partner.
China has overtaken Russia as the largest source of foreign direct investment in Central Asia, according to the Eurasian Development Bank. China’s accumulated investment in the region exceeded $35 billion in 2025, it said.
When Kazakhstan launched Central Asia’s first large-scale cloud-seeding program on May 17, it called it a high-tech response to drought, water scarcity, and accelerating desertification.
Kazakhstan has offered to host Iran's enriched uranium in order to streamline a potential peace deal between Tehran and Washington. The offer comes more than 30 years after a massive haul of weapons-grade uranium was taken out of the Central Asian country and flown to the US.
Russia is investing hundreds of millions of dollars to build schools and universities across Central Asia, reinforcing the use of the Russian language at a time when younger generations in the region are increasingly exposed to Western and Chinese influences.
Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan have issued an ultimatum to Armenia, threatening to suspend its membership in the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) amid tensions over Armenia’s push to join the European Union.
A major military museum in the western German city of Koblenz is denying entry to nationals from 26 countries, causing tense scenes with some visitors who arrive with children.
While diplomatic efforts struggle to stabilize access to the Strait of Hormuz amid tensions between the United States and Iran, Eurasian trade is increasingly being redirected toward overland alternatives, with the Middle Corridor emerging as a key diversification route in Eurasian logistics.
As expected, the launching of US and Israeli air strikes on Iran -- and retaliatory strikes by Tehran on targets in the Mideast -- has hit the economies of the region. But the shockwaves are arguably being felt just as much in Central Asian nations who rely on goods flowing through Iran.
A court in Kazakhstan convicted all 19 defendants in a politically sensitive case heard behind that was linked to an anti-China protest last year near the border between the two countries.
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