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Baku delays its e-transfer reporting rule to January and rewrites the thresholds
A day before Azerbaijan's banks were to start reporting every electronic transfer by a client whose transfers had passed 20,000 manat in a year, the Financial Monitoring Service moved the start to 1 January 2027 and rewrote the test. Reporting will follow any single transfer of 20,000 manat or more and, for individuals, every further transfer in a month once the month's total passes 50,000 manat.
Guler expects Kyrgyz and Kazakh troops at larger drills as 3 armies train in Khojavend
The Strength of Unity 2026 exercise of Azerbaijan, Türkiye and Uzbekistan held its observer day at the Qizilqaya range in Khojavend district on Thursday, with the participating countries' defence ministers and chiefs of general staff present, Azerbaijan's defence ministry said. Türkiye's Yasar Guler said he believes the Kyrgyz and the Kazakhs will join for larger exercises, and Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan signed a 2027 military cooperation plan in Baku.
Dushanbe and Moscow sign a Digmai tailings protocol and target 2.5 times the trade by 2030
The 22nd session of the Russia-Tajikistan intergovernmental commission in Dushanbe, chaired by Prime Minister Kohir Rasulzoda and Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, signed a protocol amending the Rosatom roadmap on the Digmai tailings and set a goal of multiplying trade 2.5 times by 2030 from $2.47 billion last year, Avesta and TASS reported on Thursday. Rahmon received Khusnullin, and oil-product supplies were among the subjects.
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and the UAE sign a memorandum on a rail route to Pakistan's ports
The transport ministries of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and the UAE's Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure signed a memorandum on 30 September to study a new railway, named CASA, running from Kazakhstan through Uzbekistan and Afghanistan to Pakistan's seaports, the Kazakh government said. The parties will run technical and economic studies and are considering a working group on the project's financing.
Türkiye and Azerbaijan sign defence contracts worth over $500 million at ADEX in Baku
Turkish defence firms signed four supply contracts and one memorandum with Azerbaijan at the ADEX 2026 exhibition in Baku on 30 September, Türkiye's defence-industry chief Haluk Görgün said, putting the package at more than $500 million. TUSAŞ will deliver 14 Hürkuş-II trainers this year, Baykar sells Mızrak loitering munitions and Antidot systems, Roketsan the Barbaros coastal defence system. ASELSAN signed a memorandum on ALP-100 radars.
Ashgabat opens its investment forum with TAPI as the one project its president names
The Turkmenistan Investment Forum opens on 1 October at the Ýyldyz hotel in Ashgabat for two days. The finance and economy ministry and the foreign ministry organise it with Turkmen Congress, and the programme, as News Central Asia reports it, lists delegations from more than 45 countries and the World Bank, IFC, ADB and EBRD. President Serdar Berdimuhamedov's address names one project, the TAPI pipeline's Serhetabat-Herat section, as under construction.
Azerbaijan Investment Holding and China's Silk Road Fund set up a $1 billion joint fund
Azerbaijan Investment Holding and the Silk Road Fund are creating a joint investment fund with capital of 7.5 billion yuan, about $1 billion, the holding said on 30 September at the second Azerbaijan International Investment Forum in Baku. The fund grows out of a framework agreement the two signed in April 2025 and will finance projects in Azerbaijan and in other Belt and Road countries.
Mirziyoyev sets out 100 English-language STEM schools and 300 foreign campuses
Meeting teachers ahead of Teachers' Day on 30 September, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said 40,000 Uzbek teachers now earn $1,000 a month and 1,500 more than $2,000. He set new targets: 100 schools teaching mathematics, informatics and science entirely in English from next year, branches of 300 leading universities, subsidised private schools in 52 overloaded districts and a doubled tax-free income threshold for private-school parents.
Uzbekistan’s external debt reaches $84.1 billion as imports run 24% ahead of a year earlier
Uzbekistan’s total external debt stood at $84.1 billion on 1 July, $1.9 billion more than on 1 January, the Central Bank’s half-year review of the balance of payments says. Of that, the state owed $41.7 billion and companies and banks $42.4 billion. The current account ran a deficit of about $6.2 billion in the first half, with exports of goods down 8.6% and imports up 24%.
Pashinyan tells Rosatom the new reactor will be chosen on price, safety, dates and guarantees
Nikol Pashinyan received Rosatom’s director general Alexei Likhachev on Tuesday and discussed the extension of the second unit of the Armenian nuclear plant and Russia’s proposals for a new unit, his office said. The government is still weighing offers from international partners and will decide soon, and the final decision “will be of an exclusively economic nature, taking account of price, quality, safety, timing and guarantees”.
Georgia switches off its intraday power market for 9 months from Thursday
The Georgian Energy Exchange suspends its intraday electricity market from 1 October to 1 July 2027, under a government resolution of 8 September and a regulator’s rule change of 18 September, the exchange said in a notice dated Tuesday. Trading on the day-ahead market continues as usual. Participants lose access to the intraday trading system for the 9 months and keep their registered portfolios.
Mongolia’s newest petrol train is 5 to 6 days of use, and Russia keeps its diesel ban to 31 October
The 13,000 tonnes of AI-92 petrol that reached Ulaanbaatar by rail in 217 wagons cover 5 to 6 days of normal use, the head of the oil department at the Mineral Resources and Petroleum Authority, D. Davaabayar, said at a briefing on Wednesday. Sixty-eight of the wagons had reached the unloading station. The same morning Russia’s government extended its producers’ ban on diesel exports to 31 October.
The Kremlin thanks Tokayev for his words on Putin as he flies on from Berlin to Munich
Russia values and is grateful for the assessment Kassym-Jomart Tokayev gave of Vladimir Putin in Berlin, Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, and the two presidents’ close, constructive and trusting relations let them discuss the hardest questions of the international agenda, Ukraine included. Tokayev arrived in Munich on Wednesday afternoon for talks with Bavaria’s government and Landtag and a Kazakh-Bavarian technology forum, Kazinform reported at 14:45 Astana time.
Baku ratifies Gran Tierra’s onshore PSA for 5 northern districts, 7 months after its signing
The Milli Majlis ratified on Wednesday, in a single reading, the exploration, development and production sharing agreement between SOCAR, Gran Tierra Energy (Azerbaijan) GmbH and SOCAR Quba-Khazaryani for parts of the Quba, Qusar, Shabran, Siyazan and Khizi districts, APA reported at 15:14 Baku time. The agreement was signed in Baku on 18 February. Gran Tierra holds 65% and operates.
Takaichi and Uchral: 35 minutes, an exchange of notes on the airport loan and a JETRO office
Takaichi Sanae received Nyam-Osor Uchral on Tuesday at 17:45 for 35 minutes and a working dinner, Tokyo’s foreign ministry said. The two welcomed the exchange of notes on the yen loan for the Chinggis Khaan airport expansion, agreed to open a JETRO office in Mongolia and to start talks on a tax convention, and Japan backed Mongolia’s bid for a Security Council seat in 2047.
Mongolia signs a ¥158.3 billion JICA loan at 1.1% over 40 years to triple its main airport
Finance minister Z. Mendsaikhan and JICA’s president Tanaka Akihiko signed the financing agreement for the Chinggis Khaan airport expansion on Tuesday, during Prime Minister Uchral’s visit to Japan, MNB reported on Wednesday morning. The loan is ¥158.3 billion at a fixed 1.1% a year over 40 years, with 10 years’ grace on principal. Capacity rises from 1.6 million to 5.2 million passengers a year.
Merz asks Tokayev for oil in Russia’s place, and Berlin signs 30 documents worth about $2 billion
Germany wants Kazakh oil to replace the Russian oil it no longer buys, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said beside Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at the Chancellery on Tuesday afternoon. At the same press conference Tokayev counted more than 30 commercial documents worth about $2 billion for the day. He also called Vladimir Putin an outstanding statesman and spoke of freezing hostilities in Ukraine so that talks could begin.
Astana says the Graham act’s tariffs do not reach Kazakhstan, whose gas imports put it near the cut
Kazakhstan is not covered by the tariff measures the law provides for, the foreign ministry told the Kazakh outlet Ulysmedia.kz in a written answer published on Tuesday at 17:08. Its 3 sentences name no volume and no exemption, and they are the first official word from Astana on the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act since Donald Trump signed it on 18 September.
A Turkish engineer is missing after a drone hits a Turkish-owned bulker nearing Novorossiysk
The Palau-flagged bulk carrier Aroyat, 18,315 tonnes deadweight and operated for Istanbul companies, was hit by an aerial drone on 27 September as it approached Novorossiysk from Poti, the Turkish maritime press and The Maritime Executive reported on Tuesday. Fire took the accommodation block and the stern, and the ship has been towed towards Turkey. Of the 16 crew, the Turkish second engineer is missing.
Sughd expects €32 million from the EBRD for Khujand’s sewers and €70 million for Mastchoh’s water
The EBRD will finance the modernisation of Khujand’s sewerage system with €32 million under its Green Cities programme, the Sughd regional administration’s press service said after its chairman Rajab Ahmadzoda met the bank’s head of office in Tajikistan, Holger Wiefel. Design is complete and the main works are planned for 2027. A second project, €70 million for Mastchoh district’s water supply and irrigation, is also to start in 2027.