Since the beginning of the Russian-Ukraine conflict, the countries in Central Asia (CA) became acutely aware of the severe limitations related to their transportation routes. With heavy dependence on Moscow, CA countries decided to engage in diversification of their import- export channels. For Bishkek and Tashkent such attempts resulted in the renewed interest in advancing the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan (CKU) railway project.

China, being the world’s leading economy, is already today Russia’s largest trading partner. Complementarity of the countries’ economies, the common border, large-scale transport projects, cooperation in key sectors, participation in BRICS and SCO — these and other factors serve as major drivers for all existing and new bilateral initiatives. The potential of these relationships is to a large extent determined by their content and current trends.