The Belt and Road Initiative could exacerbate Central Asia’s water tensions, a new paper argues, and Beijing seems to have thought little about the risks.
Gambling addiction has been a problem for many years in Kazakhstan, but authorities have been largely deaf to the laments of suffering relatives, until recently.
Regional governments are eager for job-creating export industries, especially in agriculture. Market access gives Beijing more leverage than debt ever could.
While the hydrocarbon field that Baku and Ashgabat will jointly develop isn’t itself a gamechanger, it could finally open up Turkmenistan’s massive gas reserves for European markets.