Uzbekistan and Pakistan vowed to increase the volume of bilateral trade by five times.

Germany and the United States, during Merkel’s final visit as Chancellor to Washington, concentrated their efforts not on whether the pipeline should be completed but rather on how Ukraine might be compensated if it loses its status as a transit country for Russian gas.

Kazakhstan’s focus on improving investor dispute resolution and prevention mechanisms has been an essential element of this success. A great deal has been done in recent years. Many countries around the world, especially those that have passed through similar transitions from other non-capitalist economic systems in their recent history, can draw useful lessons from Kazakhstan’s experience.

In Kazakhstan this week, the film director Oliver Stone presented his latest documentary, Qazaq: History of the Golden Man, an eight-hour hagiographic ode to the autocrat Nursultan Nazarbayev—a particularly grotesque move in a country where the government has been systemically stifling media ever since declaring independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has instructed the government to expand the provision of electronic services.