A woman's hand presses against a plastic sheet used to replace the shattered glass of a balcony door damaged in an Israeli strike in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

    China Urges Deeper Security Cooperation With Belarus, Uzbekistan

    BEIJING, July 24 (Reuters) – Chinese ⁠Foreign ⁠Minister Wang Yi ⁠emphasised security cooperation in separate meetings with ​his Belarusian and Uzbek counterparts, his ministry said ‌in two statements released ‌on Friday. Wang met with Belarus’ ⁠Maxim Ryzhenkov ⁠and Uzbekistan’s Bakhtiyor Saidov on the sidelines of ​the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation foreign ministers’ meeting in Bishkek on…

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    SCMP’s China Conference to debut in Astana this September

      SCMP’s China Conference to debut in Astana this September

      The South China Morning Post will host its China Conference in Kazakhstan’s capital in September, following a high-level Hong Kong delegation led by the city’s leader to Central Asia last month, marking the first such event organised by a local media outlet in the region. Announcing the move at the SCMP China Conference 2026 on…

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      Outside In | With Central Asia rising, John Lee’s visit was well timed

        Outside In | With Central Asia rising, John Lee’s visit was well timed

        In their 2022 book Sinostan, Raffaello Pantucci and Alexandros Petersen saw Central Asia as China’s “inadvertent empire”. If that is true – and the five-country region embracing Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan (informally called the C5) certainly sits at the heart of China’s Belt and Road Initiative – then Beijing could not have chosen…

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        Kazakhstan bank turns to Hong Kong as gateway to offshore renminbi finance

          Kazakhstan bank turns to Hong Kong as gateway to offshore renminbi finance

          A Kazakhstan-based commercial bank backed by China Citic Bank is seeking to collaborate with Hong Kong financial institutions and investors to develop new financing channels for the Central Asian country through the city’s thriving offshore renminbi market. Murat Baisynov, chairman of Altyn Bank, told the South China Morning Post that three clients of the Almaty-headquartered…

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