Key facts
- Kazakhstan will allow 180 weekly flights to China, up from 150, and add Chengdu and Kashgar routes.
- Uzbekistan will raise weekly flights to China to 114 from 100, its delegation said at the Tashkent session.
- Kazakhstan's vice minister of transport said flights between Kazakhstan and China rose 52 percent year-on-year.
- Kazatomprom's Meirzhan Yussupov said the company secured new natural uranium supply agreements with utilities in India and China.
- Ganfeng Lithium and Kyrgyzstan's National Investment Agency signed a memorandum on mining-sector cooperation with no amounts disclosed.
- Tajikistan signed a road reconstruction agreement with Nanjing Communication Engineering Company for a 54.1-kilometer road.
Chinese and Central Asian aviation officials met in Tashkent from November 3 to November 5 for a working group session under the C5+1 format, reviewing existing agreements and expansion plans. Kazakhstan agreed to raise permitted weekly flights to China from 150 to 180 and to add routes to Chengdu and Kashgar. Uzbekistan agreed to raise its weekly flights to China from 100 to 114 and proposed new routes linking Uzbek and Kazakh cities, including Tashkent, Almaty and Astana.
Ahead of the conference, Air Astana and China Southern Airlines signed a strategic partnership agreement. At the signing, Kazakhstan's vice minister of transport said flights between Kazakhstan and China had increased 52 percent year-on-year. Astana said it is working on a 25-year civil aviation master plan with the International Civil Aviation Organization, and work is progressing on airport modernization in Almaty and Urzhar, a second runway in Shymkent and new regional airports in Zaisan, Katonkaragay and Kendirli.
Tajik President Emomali Rahmon ratified a five-year National Civil Aviation Safety Program running until 2031, and Turkmen President Serdar Berdymukhamedov endorsed measures to strengthen aviation safety.
On the sidelines of the Second Tien Shan Forum on Economic Cooperation in Central Asia, Kazakhstan and China discussed a Kazakh-Chinese direct investment fund with initial capitalization of up to $200 million. Kazakh officials proposed consolidating financing mechanisms into a single project-financing and insurance window, with pilot projects to test it. At the China International Import Expo, Kazakh manufacturers signed agreements worth approximately $100 million; details were not disclosed.