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Tokayev launches a $1.8 billion KAZ Minerals copper smelter at Aktogay with China’s NFC
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev started construction of a copper smelter at Aktogay in Abai region by video link on 20 October, Akorda reported. KAZ Minerals is the investor, China’s NFC the engineering partner, the investment about $1.8 billion, the jobs more than 1,000, and the first copper cathode is planned for 2030. The plant will also produce gold, silver and by-products.
Mongolia’s Democrats ask whether Oyu Tolgoi’s ₮3 trillion is a dividend at all
The Democratic Party group in Mongolia’s parliament said on 22 October that the ₮3 trillion the government expects from Oyu Tolgoi in 2027 has not been shown to be a dividend by the mine’s board or in its accounts, that a dividend of that size to the state’s 34% would imply ₮6 trillion for Rio Tinto’s 66%, and that the money, if it comes, belongs in the Wealth Fund.
Aliyev approves the alliance treaty with Kyrgyzstan and takes Erdogan’s call about Ankara
Ilham Aliyev signed on 21 October the law approving the Treaty on Allied Relations between Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan, signed at Cholpon-Ata on 31 July 2026, Report said at 17:13 Baku. The same evening Recep Tayyip Erdogan telephoned to repeat his congratulations on 35 years of independence and to invite Aliyev to the 13th Organisation of Turkic States summit in Ankara on 29 and 30 October.
Andijan region plans a $300 million eurobond through its own investment company
A delegation of Andijan region discussed with the US investment bank Oppenheimer raising $300 million on international capital markets through a eurobond issued by Andijon Invest Kompaniyasi, the regional administration’s press service said on 21 October. No tenor, coupon, timing or guarantee was named. The same bank offered in September 2025 to help finance three Andijan projects worth $1.2 billion.
Kyrgyzstan keeps its 3 kilowatt peak-hour limit until the Kara-Keche plant runs in 2029
Energy Minister Altynbek Rysbekov told the Jogorku Kenesh on 21 October that limits on household electricity at peak hours will be lifted in 2028 to 2029, once the Kara-Keche thermal power plant is finished at the end of 2028 and commissioned in 2029. Smart meters now cut the ceiling from 5 to 3 kilowatts at morning and evening peaks, and the country imports about 4 billion kilowatt-hours a year.
Georgia’s party-ban court keeps its judges and Kobakhidze names a Russia envoy
On the first day of the hearing on banning five opposition parties, the Constitutional Court’s plenum rejected the motions to recuse its judges and removed a National Movement leader from the room for the rest of the proceedings. In Tbilisi the same afternoon Irakli Kobakhidze appointed Giorgi Zurabashvili his special representative for relations with Russia and said no new phase was beginning.
TAPI’s Herat section is 80% built and has two commissioning dates at the Ashgabat forum
The 31st Oil and Gas of Turkmenistan conference opened in Ashgabat on 21 October with Galkynysh’s fourth phase, the TAPI pipeline and a Malaysian offshore deal as the government’s headline items. TAPI’s chief executive put the Serhetabat to Herat section at about 80% complete and due by the end of 2026. Turkmengaz’s chairman gave 2027 for the same section.
ADB study puts two retirement-age options before Tajikistan, 63 for women or 65 for all
The Asian Development Bank’s country diagnostic study for Tajikistan, dated October 2026, proposes raising women’s retirement age from 58 to 63 or setting 65 for both sexes, and lengthening the minimum contribution period to 30 years. The average old-age pension in 2024 was 22.1% of the average wage. Asia-Plus, which reported the study on 21 October, carried no government response.
TurkPA closes its 15th plenary in Bishkek with a declaration and the next session in Türkiye
The Bishkek Declaration ended the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic States’ 15th plenary on Tuesday, the assembly’s site reported, after the speakers of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Türkiye, the Turkish Cypriot speaker as an observer and Uzbekistan’s Senate chair Tanzila Narbayeva as a guest had spoken. On the agenda were four model laws, the 2027 budget and the election of two deputy secretaries general.
KazMunayGas’s Romanian arm tripled its nine-month profit to $269 million at 97% refinery load
KMG International earned $269 million in January-September, 219% more than a year earlier, on EBITDA of $469 million, up 73%, the national company said in Kapital’s report on Tuesday. Petromidia processed 4.087 million tonnes of crude, 14,670 tonnes a day, and the group’s retail companies sold 2.272 million tonnes of fuel.
Khurelsukh’s Berlin visit yields a declaration, a Frankfurt consulate and mutual driving licences
Foreign minister Batmunkh Battsetseg and state secretary Bernhard Kotsch of the Federal Foreign Office signed the Mongolia-Germany joint declaration in Berlin on Tuesday during the president’s state visit, Montsame reported. It puts renewable energy and the green transition first among economic priorities, keeps the joint university of minerals and technology and adds UN peacekeeping and mountain-infantry training to defence cooperation.
Tashkent clears VEON’s Perfectum deal with conditions on tariffs and speed
A special commission approved the purchase of Rubicon Wireless Communication, the company behind Perfectum, by VEON’s UAE-registered holding for about $207 million including about $93 million of assumed debt, Spot reported on Tuesday from the committee’s Telegram channel. Perfectum must run as a separate operator for at least three years and keep its 5G fixed-wireless tariffs for a year.
BP starts offshore construction on the $2.9 billion Shah Deniz Compression project
Four piles about 70 metres long and 292 tonnes each now stand where the compression platform’s jacket is to be installed in the first half of 2028, BP Azerbaijan said on Tuesday in the Baku agency Report’s account. The platform is to recover about 50 billion cubic metres of gas and 25 million barrels of condensate, and Azeri Light sold at $118.53 the same morning.
Tajikistan’s trade deficit reached $6.31 billion in nine months as imports grew 40.8%
Imports of $8.48 billion ran 3.9 times above exports of $2.17 billion in January-September, by the Statistics Agency’s figures as Asia-Plus presented them on Tuesday, and the deficit widened from about $4.19 billion a year earlier. China took 30.5% of exports and supplied 28% of imports, with Russia, Kazakhstan and Switzerland next.
Serdar Berdimuhamedov greets OGT-2026 with Galkynysh’s fourth phase and the Herat pipeline
The 31st Oil and Gas of Turkmenistan conference opens in Ashgabat on Wednesday 21 October for three days under the motto “Energy. Partnership. Progress.” The president’s greeting, which the state portal published on Tuesday night, names the fourth stage of Galkynysh started in April, the Serhetabat-Herat pipeline at its final stage and the Caspian licence blocks, and gives no figure.
Georgia’s Constitutional Court opens hearings on a bid to ban five opposition parties
A lawsuit signed by 88 Georgian Dream MPs in the 150-seat parliament asks the Constitutional Court to declare five opposition parties unconstitutional: the United National Movement, the Coalition for Change, Strong Georgia, the Federalist Party and Gakharia’s For Georgia. Substantive hearings run in Batumi on 21, 22 and 23 October, and the opposition will protest outside the court from 11:00 while its lawyers sit inside.
SCO governments sign four documents in Dushanbe and hand the council’s chair to Uzbekistan
The 25th Council of Heads of Government signed a joint communiqué, a 2026-2030 trade and economic action plan, a digital freight platform concept and a decision on the regulation of a data bank of investment projects in industry on Tuesday, by the Russian government’s list. Russia’s deputy prime minister Alexei Overchuk said the meeting was “to a greater degree” about a new SCO bank, on whose shares it is “still too early to speak”.
Mongolia’s finance minister defends ₮2 trillion of Oyu Tolgoi’s dividend for power plants
Finance minister Z. Mendsaikhan told the Khural’s budget committee on Tuesday that ₮1 trillion of next year’s Oyu Tolgoi dividend goes to the savings fund under the National Wealth Fund law and ₮2 trillion to a stalled project to build thermal power plants in ten provinces. A deputy asked by what legal basis the ₮2 trillion had been put on the spending side.
Azerbaijan’s crude exports fell 6.9% in volume and rose 13% in value over nine months
The State Customs Committee’s table for January to September puts crude exports at 15.83 million tonnes worth $10.10 billion, with Italy taking 56% of the tonnage. India’s purchases rose fourfold to 524,000 tonnes, and the agency Report has printed no Azeri Light price since Saturday.
Armenia’s parliamentary committee takes up the TRIPP agreement on Wednesday
The National Assembly’s foreign relations committee debates the ratification of the framework agreement on strategic cooperation with the United States on the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity on Wednesday 21 October, with Ararat Mirzoyan as rapporteur. Ratification itself falls to the plenary, which opens on 27 October.