Central Asia
Uzbekistan and the new ‘Great Game’
In the summer of 1842, two senior British officers were led from their dungeon to the executioner's sword in Bukhara. Their crime? Seeking to thwart Russia's advance into Central Asia. Their deaths became one of the defining episodes of the nineteenth-century Great Game between the British and Russian Empires. Lijia Zhang knows the country well.
Kyrgyzstan’s ruling tandem breaks amid new sanctions scrutiny
Kyrgyzstan kickstarted summer with a diplomatic triumph, becoming the second Central Asian state after Kazakhstan to win a non-permanent UN Security Council seat. But new European Union sanctions over trade with Russia and the collapse of the republic’s ruling ‘tandem’ have added a fresh dose of risk for a country where trouble is never far away, as Chris Rickleton reports.
Pakistan and Afghanistan navigate the Hormuz blockade
The prolonged blockade through the Strait of Hormuz is raising costs and uncertainty across South and Central Asia. Few countries are as exposed as Pakistan and Afghanistan. Yet while the crisis threatens economic disruption, it has created an opportunity for Islamabad to reposition itself as an increasingly consequential diplomatic and logistical actor, as Iftikar Firdous reports.
Kazakhs vote for change in stage-managed referendum
On 15 March Kazakhs voted by a substantial majority for constitutional changes which some see as an exit strategy for President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who is seeking political closure on the instability that embroiled the country in 2022. Chris Rickleton reports.
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