Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's April 15-16 visit to Kazakhstan marked an important step forward in India's ties with the rising Central Asian nation. Relations between the two countries have gained momentum since January 2009, when Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev was the chief guest at India's Republic Day celebrations.

Uzbekistan is opening up its economy and vast mineral resources to China rather than Europe after feeling let down by Western pressure over its human rights record, a top official said Friday.

It was supposed to be the Las Vegas of Central Asia, a ritzy gambling city on the shores of a man-made lake that would attract high rollers from as far afield as China.

We continue to wonder what is happening in authoritarian Muslim petro-nations outside the Middle East and North Africa. We previously published excerpts of Afghanistan coverage by Muhammad Tahir, Washington correspondent for RFE/RL. With the post below, Muhammad offers his take on Turkmenistan, the natural gas-rich Central Asian republic bordering Iran, Afghanistan and the Caspian Sea. The opinions expressed are his alone, and do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL.

ASTANA -- Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev said today at the Assembly of Peoples of Kazakhstan that he wants to remain in power until 2030, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.

ASTANA, Kazakhstan — The tempests that have whirled through other authoritarian states dissipated well before reaching this Muslim country, where last week citizens effusively thanked their president for his 20 years in power by awarding him five more.

WHILE demonstrators in north Africa and the Middle East are standing up to one-man rule in their countries, great numbers of people in Kazakhstan thronged to the polls on April 3rd to vote for an authoritarian strongman who has been in power since the days of the Soviet Union.

(SRI) - Timur Kulibayev, the billionaire son-in-law of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, has on Tuesday been named head of the state-owned investment and holding company Samruk-Kazyna.

Nursultan Nazarbayev, the "victor" in Kazakhstan's recent presidential election with 95 percent of the vote, claimed on this page April 1 that his country has a democratic destiny.