Caucasus
Coverage across the South Caucasus — Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.
Bishkek signs its second alliance in two days
Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan signed a Treaty on Allied Relations at Cholpon-Ata on Friday morning, a day after Bishkek concluded a treaty of the same rank with Tashkent. Two alliances in two days make the lakeshore summit a working one.
The region’s diplomacy moves to a Kyrgyz lakeshore
Shavkat Mirziyoyev departed for Kyrgyzstan on Thursday morning on a state visit that runs into a Central Asia–Azerbaijan summit at Cholpon-Ata from 30 July to 1 August. Ilham Aliyev arrives on a state visit of his own.
The corridor and the war now share one sea
Peskov called the strikes in the Caspian extremely dangerous on Monday. In the same days, the first cargo to move under electronic TIR across three countries crossed that water from Baku to Turkmenbashi.
One littoral state speaks about the Caspian
Turkmenistan called the attack on a vessel in the Caspian inadmissible and named nobody at all. Kyiv answered Tehran the same day, and Baku and Tehran shut each other’s broadcasters.
The war reaches the Caspian
Iran says a Ukrainian strike killed a sailor on one of its commercial ships in the Caspian. The detour Kazakhstan is counting on runs across that same sea.
Berlin signs the agenda, the numbers stay unwritten
Aliyev and Merz signed the Joint Declaration on the Strategic Agenda of German-Azerbaijani partnership on Tuesday, agreed to stand up a bilateral Economic Council, and talked gas at length. The watch lines our Tuesday piece set resolved the same way: intent everywhere, a number nowhere.
The first e-TIR truck heads for Turkmenistan
The first pilot shipment under the electronic TIR customs system between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan began this week, the head of Azerbaijan’s road carriers association said: the cargo has already crossed from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan over the Caspian and moves on to Turkmenistan next.
Aliyev takes a strategic agenda to Berlin
Azerbaijan’s president is in Germany, with a Joint Declaration on the Strategic Agenda of bilateral partnership planned for his meeting with chancellor Friedrich Merz, per the state agency APA. The agenda runs through gas and the Middle Corridor, and the visit lands while Baku’s rupture with Moscow stays open.
Central Asia's westward corridor runs through Baku, and Baku is fighting Moscow
On 6 July Azerbaijan summoned Russia's ambassador and handed him a protest note over a Russian drone strike on a SOCAR fuel station in Ukraine. It was the latest blow in a dispute that has outlived the settlement both sides signed in April. For Central Asia the quarrel lands close to home: the westward trade routes Astana, Tashkent and Ashgabat are building all pass through the country now at odds with Moscow.
Islamic Development Bank opens its annual meetings in Baku with $2.8 billion in approvals
The IsDB's 51st annual gathering opened in Baku on 16 June under the theme of regional integration. The bank approved $2.8 billion in financing at its board meeting and signed trade finance agreements with Tajikistan on the sidelines.
Two forums, one pitch: the region sells resilience as the war premium fades
In the same week, Tashkent and Baku are both courting global capital on a promise of stability and integration. The timing is telling: with the Iran war ending, the region has to win capital on fundamentals again, after a season when someone else’s crisis did the selling.
Baku opens the Islamic Development Bank’s annual meetings as Gulf money eyes the region
The Islamic Development Bank Group opened its 51st annual meetings in Baku on 16 June under the banner of regional integration. For Central Asia’s member states, it is a week to court Gulf and Islamic capital close to home.
The Trans-Caspian pipeline returns to the agenda as Europe’s gas deadline nears
A pipeline idea that has circled the Caspian for thirty years looks newly serious as Europe’s 2027 deadline to drop Russian gas closes in.
The corridor is booming. It is also far from competitive. A Carnegie reality check
Cargo volumes rose 63% in 2024. The corridor still handles 6% of the Russian route's capacity. A new Carnegie analysis maps the gap between ambition and infrastructure.
Forum week: Baku signed, St. Petersburg celebrated, Riga quietly worked
Three gatherings, one week, one pipeline. A tour of the parallel universes of Eurasian energy diplomacy.
Four days out: Washington names Moscow's play in Armenia
Secretary Rubio told the Senate on Tuesday that Russia wants Pashinyan to lose. The claim lands in the middle of the dirtiest election campaign Armenia has seen in years.
Baku Energy Week: $7.5 billion in contracts, a green corridor pitch, and Central Asia in the room
Azerbaijan's minister framed the Caspian region as a new energy space. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan were named as corridor partners. $7.5 billion in contracts signed at the forum.
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BTK Goes Full Throttle: Upgraded Baku–Tbilisi–Kars Railway Enters Operation
Capacity jumped from 1 to 5 million tonnes a year. The Middle Corridor's western spine is no longer a bottleneck.
Baku–Supsa Pipeline Returns: Kazakhstan Oil Joins the Rerouting
A deal signed during Kobakhidze’s Baku visit on 18 May restores a dormant Caspian export route — and Astana is already looking at it