ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov invited his counterpart in Uzbekistan to attend the inauguration of a transnational gas pipeline to China.

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, June 29 (UPI) -- Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang, seeking wider ties with resource-rich Uzbekistan, says bilateral trade with the Central Asian nation is growing rapidly.

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, June 17 (UPI) -- Uzbekistan cut natural gas supplies to Tajikistan over a failure to pay its $17.5 million in debt, executives in Tajikistan said.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Wanted: a large airport in Central Asia, preferably a former Soviet air base. With the clock ticking for the United States to close Manas Air Base in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, the Pentagon is scrambling to find an alternative.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- An integral element of the new Eurasian "great game" between Russia and the United States is a tussle for control of the Caspian's hydrocarbon riches and those of former Soviet republics farther east. But Russia is making a diplomatic play on another key resource -- water.

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- Uzbekistan is prepared to sell 1.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas to Russia in 2009, President Islam Karimov said during a meeting with Russian officials.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The noted Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes once wrote, “Poor Mexico, so far from God, so close to the United States.” Substitute “Central Asia” for “Mexico” and “Russia” for the “United States,” and one begins to have an idea of the energy exports problems facing Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. For the three easternmost former Soviet “Stan” republics, 2008 has been a year of stress and possibility. Given their geographic isolation, despite their independence, all three nations have been forced to acknowledge the reality of Russia’s ongoing regional influence, despite the collapse of communism in 1991.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- During Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's visit to Tashkent, he and Uzbek President Islam Karimov signed a series of agreements to sell Uzbek natural gas to Russia and upgrade two Soviet-era natural gas pipelines. The agreements represent yet another Western and American setback to securing Caspian and Central Asian energy resources for export to the West.

BEIJING, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao greeted foreign leaders in separate meetings on the eve of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games.