Weekly News Roundup: Dispatches from the Silk Road Economic Belt

SHOULD PAKISTAN BE ALARMED AS BFF CHINA GETS PALLY WITH INDIA?
Islamabad has more reason than most to feel uneasy as China’s President Xi Jinping meets Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The concerns rise from Indian press reports that Beijing and New Delhi have been quietly discussing an unlikely compromise resolution of India’s opposition to Belt and Road projects located in the Pakistan-administered half of Kashmir, through which flows its only overland link to China. (Scmp)

Freight train service connects Chinese port with Belgium
A freight train service has been launched from a port in North China's Hebei province to Belgium, a further line for freight between China and Europe.A train carrying 41 containers of local products, such as kaoline and yeast, departed around noon Thursday from Jingtang Port District in the city of Tangshan, marking the inauguration of the service. (China Daily)

CEFC to increase ESPO crude cargoes it gets under Rosneft supply contract: sources

CEFC China Energy plans to increase the volume of Russian ESPO crude it receives under a long-term supply contract with Russian producer Rosneft since ESPO is sought by more Chinese refiners, four trade sources said. (Reuters)ù

Faced With Chinese Expansion, Kazakhstan Seeks Alternative Energy Markets
It could be assumed that the intensifying trade war between the United States and China would cause economic slowdown in China and result, in the long run, in the drastic reduction of Chinese imports of energy resources from Kazakhstan. But in his recent interview to Kazakhstani media outlets, Chinese ambassador to Astana, Zhang Hanhui, dispelled these fears. (jamestown)

EU Is Ready to Fight Back Against China's Growing Trade Dominance

Europe is set to tighten controls over foreign investment, a sign of growing wariness of China’s efforts to use its $11 trillion economy to become a dominant global power. A Bloomberg survey of the European Union’s 28 member states found that at least 15 governments actively or tacitly support draft legislation that would screen investments from outside the bloc. With a majority prepared to wave it through, the proposal is on course for passage by the European Parliament, the bill’s next step to becoming law. (Bloomberg)

How a Medieval Society Withstood Nearly 60 Years of Drought
The Uighurs of the Central Asian steppe survived by trading with their neighbors, rather than warring with them. (Atlantic)

China urges ADB to back Belt and Road Initiative, AIIB
Japan pushes 'quality infrastructure' as US seeks 'environmental safeguards'. (Nikkei)

So far, 18 of the 25 projects financed by the Beijing-based bank have involved co-lending with the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank and Islamic Development Bank. The remaining seven projects have been financed solely by the AIIB.Mr Alexander said the bank was intending to increase the total loans it disburses this year from $2.7bn last year and $1.6bn in 2016. He did not give a target number, but it is thought that the bank is looking to lend between $3bn and $3.5bn this year. (FT)

Pakistan minister who oversees Chinese projects recovering after assassination attempt
Pakistani Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal wounded in an apparent assassination attempt by a gunman linked to a new ultra-religious Muslim party – an incident likely to raise tensions before an election expected in late July. (Scmp)

Europe-bound freight trains from Urumqi exceed 1,000 since 2016

More than 1,000 China-Europe freight trains have made journeys starting from Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, since May 2016, when the Urumqi transport hub opened.(Xinhua)

CENTRAL ASIA

Leader of Turkmenistan visits Tashkent for first time since election of new Uzbek president
Uzbekistani President Shavkat Mirziyaev’s first foreign trip, in March 2017, nearly seven months after coming to power, took him to Turkmenistan. The salient point of the visit was the opening of a mile-long rail-and-car bridge connecting both countries over the Amudarya river and the signing of a strategic agreement, one of only two Uzbekistan ever signed with its Central Asian neighbors (President.uz, March 7, 2017; Gazeta.uz, March 6, 2017). Mirziyaev visited Turkmenistan two more times following his first visit. And on April 23–24, 2018, a little more than a year since the first official bilateral summit, he hosted President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow in Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan takes reform story to bond investors
Interest in the opening up of Uzbekistan, the Central Asian state that was long one of the world's most isolated nations, has been growing amid a flurry of announced reforms. Soon investors will get a chance to take their own view on its economic prospects. (Nikkei)

Uzbek journalist set free in landmark trial
An Uzbek court cleared a journalist of charges of conspiracy against the government, released him and ordered investigations into “violations” during his detention on Monday, after a trial closely monitored by rights groups. (Reuters)

Uzbek Leader to Visit White House
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev will meet with his U.S. counterpart (RFE/RL), Donald J. Trump, in Washington later this month for talks on regional security, trade, and investment, the White House announced.