Kazakhstan

Hong Kong is stepping up efforts to strengthen economic and professional links with Central Asia. The Hong Kong Trade Development Council, together with the city's Department of Justice, led the Collaborate2Win campaign across Xinjiang, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, promoting Hong Kong's financial, legal and professional services as it seeks new markets and partners in the region.

Kazakhstan's experience in nuclear diplomacy is being presented as a rare useful model for resolving the standoff over Iran's uranium stockpile, as negotiations face mounting technical and political obstacles. Commentators point to Astana's history of denuclearisation and mediation as lessons for defusing the Iranian nuclear crisis.

Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has called on nuclear-armed states to return to negotiations, marking 35 years since the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. He warned that global arms-control safeguards are weakening, arguing that the anniversary of the Soviet test site's closure carries renewed urgency amid rising nuclear tensions worldwide.

Kazakhstan is positioning itself as a possible technical partner in any future deal over Iran's nuclear programme, specifically the handling and storage of enriched uranium. The move signals Central Asia's growing role in nuclear diplomacy as disputes over Iran's uranium stockpile intensify, with talks potentially drawing on Kazakhstan's experience as a former nuclear-armed state and its nonproliferation credentials.

Archaeologists in southern Kazakhstan have uncovered an ancient burial containing the remains of a woman with a fatal skull injury, prompting suggestions she may have been murdered. Researchers are examining the wound to determine whether it resulted from violence, an accident, or conflict. The find is drawing attention as a rare glimpse into possible prehistoric crime in the region.