A Russian spy ring operating out of the UK tried to use sophisticated surveillance equipment to compromise and track the mobile phones of Ukrainian soldiers being trained at a US airbase in Germany, a court has heard.

The operation, which was only stopped after the suspects were arrested, would have had profound implications for Ukraine’s defence.

Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanchev, 39 – all Bulgarian nationals living in the UK – deny conspiring to spy. Ms Ivanova also denies possessing multiple false identify documents.

Orlin Roussev, 46, from Great Yarmouth, and Biser Dzhambazov, 43, from London, have already admitted being part of a conspiracy to spy.

Roussev acted as the organiser, taking instructions from an Austrian national – Jan Marsalek – who was acting as a Russian agent, the court was previously told.

The court also heard how the spy ring planned to cover the Kazakhstan Embassy in London in fake pig’s blood as part of a staged protest.

As part of that same operation, the group discussed creating “deepfake” porn videos of the son of the President of Kazakhstan or seducing him in a “honeytrap”.

The three defendants stand accused of participating in six different operations, all of which the prosecution alleges were to the direct advantage of the Russian state.

The prosecution is still setting out its opening arguments, which today covered the third, fourth, fifth and sixth operations.

The third operation involved complex surveillance activity against Bergey Ryskaliyev, a former Kazakh politician living in exile in the UK, the court heard. It is alleged the group used black taxis, Deliveroo drivers and a fake NHS vehicle in order to surveil him.

Operation four was said to have targeted the Kazakh embassy and the son of the Kazakh president, a Russian ally. The prosecution claimed that the plans were to curry favour with the president, by offering solutions to problems of their own making.

The fifth operation took place at a sensitive US military base near the German city of Stuttgart, where Ukrainian soldiers were being trained on how to use the Patriot air defence system, the court heard.

A sophisticated piece of surveillance equipment called a “Stealth Catcher IMSI Grabber” was to be used to gather the details of the personal phones of Ukrainian troops there, the prosecution said.

It was alleged that one of the defendants, Katrin Ivanova, was going to operate the equipment.

If successfully gathered, this would have allowed the geolocation of the air defence systems once in the field, giving Russia a significant military advantage.

The final operation presented by the prosecution involved a plan to kidnap or kill a Russian dissident named Kirill Kachur, it said.

The court heard how all three defendants took part in a complex surveillance mission that involved a chain-smoking, fast food loving, Russian spy codenamed Red Sparrow.

One of the messages presented to the jury said: “Our friends would like to see him return to Russia… we don’t mind if he dies by accident, but better if he manages to find his way to Moscow.”

The prosecution says the existence of these schemes is not in doubt – thousands of messages set out the details, with Orlin Roussev and Biser Dzhambazov having already admitted their role in the operations.

What is in question is the extent to which the three on trial – Katrin Ivanova, Vanya Gaberova, and Tihomir Ivanchev – were aware of the nature of the work they were doing.

All three deny the charges and the trial continues.

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Russia has trained its troops for a potential attack on Japan and South Korea, according to a report by the Financial Times. Leaked military files show detailed plans for strikes on civilian infrastructure in event of war.

The British outlet reviewed 29 Russian military documents and uncovered a strategy devised by Moscow to target the two Asian nations.

The email, dated March 17, was sent by the agent, dubbed the Wind of Change, to Vladimir Osechkin, a Russian human-rights activist who runs the anti-corruption website Gulagu.net, and is now exiled in France.

The FSB agent writes regular dispatches to Osechkin, revealing the anger and discontent inside the service over the war that began when Putin invaded neighboring Ukraine on February 24.

Russia reportedly developed a detailed plan to assess the defensive capabilities and vulnerabilities of both countries. As part of the preparation, several Russian Tu-95 bombers embarked on a 17-hour flight circuit.

This operation took place in 2014, the same year Russia annexed Crimea and during a joint military exercise between South Korea and the United States.

“Confidence that the countries would enter the stage of acute confrontation and even war was high. Why Ukraine was chosen for war in the end [the scenario was not changed much] is for others to answer,” they wrote.

The whistleblower detailed movements of electronic warfare helicopters targeting Japan, while Russia’s propaganda machine was also initiated, with a huge push to label Japanese as “Nazis” and “fascists.”

According to William Alberque, former NATO official who works at the Stimson Center, interviewed by the Financial Times, this sample represents only a small proportion of “hundreds, if not thousands, of mapped targets across Europe, including military targets and critical infrastructure.”

Kuril Islands

A peace treaty formally ending World War II has never been signed by Russia and Japan, largely because of disputes over a group of islands claimed by Japan, but occupied by Russia.

The Kunashiri, Etorofu, Shikotan and Habomai islands of the Kuril Island chain were seized by the USSR at the end of World War II. Tokyo claims the islands as its “Northern Territories” and the issue has strained relations between Russia and Japan for decades.

Russia’s military prepared detailed target lists for a potential war with Japan and South Korea that included nuclear power stations and other civilian infrastructure, according to secret files from 2013-2014 seen.

The strike plans, summarized in a leaked set of Russian military documents, cover 160 sites such as roads, bridges and factories, selected as targets to stop the “regrouping of troops in areas of operational purpose”.

Moscow’s acute concern about its eastern flank is highlighted in the documents, which were shown to western sources. Russian military planners fear the country’s eastern borders would be exposed in any war with NATO and vulnerable to attack from US assets and regional allies.

The documents are drawn from a cache of 29 secret Russian military files, largely focused on training officers for potential conflict on the country’s eastern frontier from 2008-14 and still seen as relevant to Russian strategy.

This year reported on how the documents contain previously unknown details on operating principles for the use of nuclear weapons and outline scenarios for war-gaming a Chinese invasion and for strikes deep inside Europe.

Asia has become central to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strategy for pursuing the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and his broader stance against NATO.

Russia developed offensive plans targeting civilian and military sites in Japan and South Korea in the event of a war with NATO, the Financial Times reported on Dec. 31, citing documents shown to the outlet by Western sources.

You want Peace, Prepare for War

Leaked emails from a whistleblower at Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB),  reveal a civil war among President Vladimir Putin‘s closest allies as his invasion of Ukraine continues to falter.

The agent, dubbed the Wind of Change, writes regular dispatches to Russian dissident exile Vladimir Osechkin, revealing the anger and discontent inside the FSB over the war that began when Putin invaded neighbouring Ukraine on February 24.

Dated November, the agent’s latest emails detail inner turmoil and conflict within the Kremlin, predicting an “inevitable” civil war, and that Russia will soon “descend into the abyss of terror” as people grow increasingly tired of the war.

The FSB agent, however, said that “there is no model of ‘just changing power'” in Russia.

“There is no way to ‘change everything’ in Russia so that the country as a whole will function and does not descend into the abyss of terror,” the email said, laying out how a civil war would play out in the country.

“In the beginning we may get a haphazard riot, with only looting and chaotic skirmishes between everyone. Let me try to explain: the struggle of security agencies against Prigozhin’s structures, a real war against each other, is bad, but generally inevitable,” they wrote.

“Or there will be battles of the regions for the division of resources. Or a scramble of various forces for control over regions or chunks of the country (Russia).”

But the country could collapse into total chaos, the agent said. “Believe me—that is far more terrifying. I assert, and this is by no means the solitary private opinion of one simple (FSB) employee: we have f***ed up the country.

We (FSB) screwed up the country not on February 24, when this whole affair began, but much earlier, when February 24 became possible in principle.”

“Chaos, civil war, collapse—yes, it’s all ahead of us. It is inevitable,” the FSB agent said. “Too many in Russia have crossed the point of no return. They plan to be little czars in the areas they manage to capture. At least, that’s the way they are thinking.”

The leaked plans, drawn up between 2008 and 2014 to train military officers for a potential conflict on Russia’s eastern flank, are reportedly still considered “relevant to Russian strategy” today.

The documents outline 160 potential targets, including civilian and military infrastructure such as roads, bridges, factories, and military installations in NATO-allied Japan and South Korea.

The plans detailed how striking these targets could protect Russia’s eastern flank in a broader conflict by disrupting the “regrouping of troops in areas of operational purpose.”

Military targets identified in the plans include the central and regional command headquarters of the Japanese and South Korean armed forces, radar installations, air bases, and naval facilities. Civilian infrastructure targets include roads, bridges, and rail tunnels.

Other key sites include fuel refineries, industrial facilities such as steelworks and chemical factories in Busan, South Korea, and 13 power plants, including a nuclear complex in Tokai, Japan.

Although the plans were drafted between 2008 and 2014, both Russia and NATO are now openly discussing the possibility of war.

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, speaking at a Defense Ministry meeting on Dec. 16, said Russia needed to prepare for various scenarios, including a “potential conflict with NATO within the next decade.”

Belousov accused NATO of preparing for war, citing actions such as appointing a representative in Kyiv and supporting Ukraine’s NATO membership during the Alliance’s 75th-anniversary summit in July 2024.

On the Atlantic side, European NATO foreign ministers have begun discussing a gradual increase in the alliance’s defense spending target from 2% to 3% of GDP by 2030. The Trump administration proposed 5% of GDP for defense.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius in particular advocated for a larger defense budget, saying: “If Putin attacks, we need to be able to wage war.”

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Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who received the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to peace in the Middle East and easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula in the 1990s, died Sunday, the Carter Center said. He was 100.

Carter, the longest-living former U.S. president in history, who entered hospice care nearly two years ago, died peacefully at his home in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by his family, according to the center.

“My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights and unselfish love,” Chip Carter, the former president’s son, said in a statement.

A naval lieutenant-turned-politician, Carter was inaugurated after serving as governor of the state of Georgia from 1971 to 1975 and a state senator in the 1960s. Before entering politics, he ran his family’s peanut farm.

As Democrat U.S. president from 1977 to 1981, Carter worked to help Israel and Egypt improve relations through the so-called Camp David agreement in 1978.

The United States switched its diplomatic recognition to China from Taiwan in 1979 under the Carter administration.

Carter the same year attended a summit of seven industrialized nations in Tokyo that included the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, West Germany and Italy.

Carter lost to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential election after he came under fire over the handling of the hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy in Iran that started the previous year as well as the slumping economy.

He established the Carter Center in Atlanta, a nongovernmental organization focused on advancing human rights, in 1982 with Emory University.

In 1994, Carter succeeded in easing tensions with North Korea, which was facing the threat of sanctions over its nuclear program, by visiting Pyongyang and holding talks with the country’s then President Kim Il Sung.

The United States and North Korea subsequently reached the Agreed Framework in which Pyongyang promised to freeze a nuclear plant that could produce weapons-grade plutonium in return for the procurement of two light-water nuclear plants and energy aid.

Hours after Carter’s death was announced, U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters that he “stands as a model of what it means to live a life of meaning and purpose, a life of principle, of faith and humility. His life dedicated to others.”

Biden labeled the 39th president a man of “decency” several times when addressing the media.

He later issued a proclamation on Carter’s death, designating Jan. 9 as a national day of mourning. He also directed U.S. flags to be flown at half-staff for 30 days from Sunday on all public buildings and grounds, naval vessels and at military posts, as well as U.S. facilities abroad.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, meanwhile, said on his Truth Social platform, “While I strongly disagreed with him philosophically and politically, I also realized that he truly loved and respected our Country, and all it stands for.”

“He worked hard to make America a better place, and for that I give him my highest respect,” said Trump, who will return to the White House on Jan. 20 for a nonconsecutive second term.

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Donald Trump on the sidelines in France where he attended the re-opening of a change of direction of U.S. involvement in helping NATO and Ukraine. 

This was also confirmed by the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaking at the OSCE conference in Malta. The Russian take the signaling of the European and U.S. as concerning.  Trump is perceived as the rising star on the foreign affair domain as a tough negotiator. 

The toughness becomes evident with the former Lithuanian prime minister becoming the first dedicated defense commissioner this month, tasked with turbocharging Europe’s defense industry and the stuttering push to rearm.

Donald Trump is counting on the rearmament of the Europeans. The American tough hand played by Trump is not an act. It was shaped by years of dealings in the toughest property market, the gambling and money markets. Donald Trump will to “fight” was evident in his response to the shooting, “Fight, fight, fight” became a battle cry. 

Voices in the U.S. is concerned about NATO but all the pundits forget Trump is a gambler, he says one thing and does another. Creating strategic ambiguity is the trump card, so the pun, and keep the Russians guessing. 

Vladimir Putin should not be under any illusions. Donald J. Trump is a fighter. He has the guts to defend the United States and take on the Russian Federation. If anyone challenges this assumption, even it is China or Russia will experience the wrath of the United States. 

Since his unofficial inauguration at the French opening of Notre Dame the mood has changed. Heads of states who attended the opening were seen get close to the U.S. president. A shift of power has occurred. 

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Russia’s resurrected military industrial complex is cannibalising the rest of its economy

Ukraine is slowly losing the three-year conflict on the battlefield. Russia is slowly losing the economic conflict at a roughly equal pace. The Kremlin’s oil export revenues are too low to sustain a high-intensity war and nobody will lend Vladimir Putin a kopeck.

Russia’s overheated, military-Keynesian war economy looks much like the dysfunctional German war economy of late 1917, which had run out of skilled manpower and was holed below the waterline after three years of Allied blockade – as the logistical failures of the Ludendorff offensive would later reveal.

Putin’s strategic victory in Ukraine was far from inevitable a fortnight ago and it is less inevitable now after the Assad regime collapsed like a house of cards, shattering Putin’s credibility in the Middle East and the Sahel. He could do nothing to save his sole state ally in the Arab world.

“The limits of Russian military power have been revealed,” said Tim Ash, a regional expert at Bluebay Asset Management and a Chatham House fellow.

Turkey is now master of the region. Turkish forces had to step in to rescue stranded Russian generals. Even if Putin succeeds in holding on to his naval base at Tartus – a big if – this concession will be on Ottoman terms and sufferance. “Putin now goes into Ukraine peace talks from a position of weakness,” said Mr Ash.

When Trump won the US elections in 2016, corks of Golubitskoe Villa Romanov popped at the Kremlin. There were no illusions this time. Anton Barbashin from Riddle Russia says Donald Trump imposed 40 rounds of sanctions on Russia, belying his bonhomie with Putin before the cameras. He has since warned that Putin will not get all of the four annexed (but unconquered) oblasts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia.

The Kremlin had banked on a contested election outcome in the US, followed by months of disarray that would discredit US democracy across the world. The polite interregnum has been a cruel disappointment.

Barbashin says Russia’s leaders expect Trump to issue ultimatums to both Kyiv and Moscow: if Volodymyr Zelensky balks at peace terms, the US will sever all military aid; if Putin drags his feet, the US will up the military ante and carpet-bomb the Russian economy.

That economy held up well for two years but this third year has become harder. The central bank has raised interest rates to 21pc to choke off an inflation spiral. “The economy cannot exist like this for long. It’s a colossal challenge for business and banks,” said German Gref, Sberbank’s chief executive.

Sergei Chemezov, head of the defence giant Rostec, said the monetary squeeze was becoming dangerous. “If we continue like this, most companies will essentially go bankrupt. At rates of more than 20pc, I don’t know of a single business that can make a profit, not even an arms trader,” he said.

The resurrection of the Soviet military industrial complex – to borrow a term from Pierre-Marie Meunier, the French intelligence analyst – is cannibalising the rest of the economy. Some 800,000 of the young and best-educated have left the country. The numbers slaughtered or maimed in the meat grinder are approaching half a million.

Russia’s digital minister says the shortage of IT workers is around 600,000. The defence industry has 400,000 unfilled positions. The total labour shortage is near 5m.

Anatoly Kovalev, head of Zelenograd Nanotechnology Centre, said his industry was crippled by lack of equipment and could not replace foreign supplies. “There is a shortage of qualified specialists: engineers, technologists, developers, designers. There are practically no colleges and technical schools that train personnel for the industry,” he said.

Total export earnings from all fossil fuels were running at about $1.2bn (£940m) a day in mid-2022. They have fallen for the last 10 months consecutively and are now barely $600mn. The Kremlin takes a slice of this for the budget but it is far too little to fund a war machine gobbling up a 10th of GDP in one way or another.

Oil tax revenues slumped to $5.8bn in November, based on a Urals price averaging near $65 a barrel. That price could fall a lot further. Russia is facing an incipient price war with Saudi Arabia in Asian markets.

Putin is raiding the National Wealth Fund to cover the shortfall. Its liquid assets have fallen to a 16-year low of $54bn. Its gold reserves have dropped from 554 to 279 tonnes over the last 15 months. The fund is left with illiquid holdings that cannot be crystallised, such as an equity stake in Aeroflot.

The long-awaited rally in oil prices keeps refusing to happen. JP Morgan said excess global supply next year would reach 1.3m barrels a day due to rising output from Brazil, Guyana, and US shale. Rosneft’s Igor Sechin has told his old KGB friend Putin to brace for $45-$50 next year. Adjusted for inflation, that matches levels that bankrupted the Soviet Union in the 1980s.

The purpose of the G7’s convoluted oil sanctions was – until a month ago – to eat into Putin’s revenue without curtailing global oil supply and worsening the cost of living shock in the West. This has been a partial success. Russia had to assemble a shadow fleet of tankers and ship oil from Baltic and Black Sea ports to buyers in India and China, who pressed a hard bargain.

The International Energy Agency estimates that the discount on Urals crude has averaged $15 over 2023 to 2024, depriving Putin of $75m a day in export revenues.

Russia can get around technology sanctions but its systems are configured to western semiconductors. These chips cannot easily be replaced by Chinese suppliers, even if they were willing to risk US secondary sanctions, which most are not. The chips are bought at a stiff premium on the global black market and are unreliable.

Ukrainian troops have noticed that Russian Geran-2 drones keep spinning out of control. The Washington Post reports that laser-guided devices on Russia’s T-90M tanks have “mysteriously disappeared”, greatly reducing capability.

The industry ministry has been trying to develop analogues to replace chips from Texas Instruments, Aeroflex and Cypress but admitted in October that all three tenders had failed. Alexey Novoselov from the circuits company Milandr said Russia could not obtain the insulator technologies needed to make chips of 90 nanometers or below. It is the dark ages.

The US tightened the noose three weeks ago, imposing sanctions on Gazprombank and over 50 Russian banks linked to global transactions. This has greatly complicated Russia’s ability to trade energy and buy technology on the black market. It briefly crashed the ruble, now hovering at around 100 to the dollar.

Chinese banks have stopped accepting Russian UnionPay cards. The Chinese press says exporters have pulled back from Russian e-commerce sites such as Yandez or Wildberries because payment fees through third-parties no longer cover thin profit margins. Some have been unable to extract their money from Russia and are facing large losses.

Few foresaw the sudden and total collapse of the Soviet regime, though all the signs of economic decay and imperial overreach were there to see by 1989.

Putin’s regime is not yet at this point but it would only take one more change in the Middle East to bring matters to a head. If the Saudis again decide to flood the world with cheap crude to recoup market share – as many predict – oil will fall below $40 and Russia will spin out of economic control.

The Ukraine war may end in Riyadh.

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Beijing says that sales ‘seriously’ violate one-China principle and 3 China-US joint communiques

China on Sunday deplored and “firmly” opposed US arms sales to Taiwan, saying it “seriously” violates the one-China principle and the three Beijing-Washington joint communiques.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that Beijing has lodged “serious” protests to the US over the latest arms sales, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Washington on Saturday announced that it has approved $385 million worth of arms sales to Taiwan.

“The US arms sales to China’s Taiwan region seriously violate the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques, especially the August 17 Communique of 1982 and China’s sovereignty and security interests,” the spokesperson said.

The decision to sell arms to Taiwan is simply inconsistent with US leaders’ commitment of not supporting “Taiwan independence,” Beijing further said.

“We call on the US to immediately stop arming Taiwan and stop abetting and supporting ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces in seeking ‘Taiwan independence’ by building up its military,” the spokesperson said, adding: “China will take strong and resolute countermeasures to firmly defend national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity.”

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A new campaign, “Against Book Burning,” launched by education activists, is drawing attention to the Taliban’s censorship and removal of books across several provinces.

Humaira Qaderi, a writer and university professor, along with her brother Khalid Qaderi, initiated the campaign to counter what they describe as the Taliban’s “policy of erasure and repression.”

According to Ms. Qaderi, the Taliban have censored thousands of books and confiscated them from libraries and universities nationwide.

“This is part of a systematic attempt to suppress knowledge,” Ms. Qaderi said, noting that hundreds of titles have been deemed “undesirable” and access to them banned, particularly in Herat province.

The campaign has garnered support both inside and outside Afghanistan, with people participating by sharing videos of themselves reading books in solidarity.

“We are seeing people from all walks of life join this movement by celebrating the very act the Taliban want to silence — reading,” Ms. Qaderi said.

She sharply criticized the Taliban’s actions, calling the confiscation of so-called “forbidden books” an attack on intellectual freedom.

For nearly three years under Taliban rule, Afghans have faced increasing restrictions, with cultural and intellectual freedoms among the casualties of the regime’s hardline governance. Ms. Qaderi noted that the crackdown on books is part of a broader pattern of repression that has left Afghan citizens grappling with profound challenges.

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The committee intends to visit Afghanistan, Mozambique, New Zealand, Peru, Serbia, Burundi, France, and Mexico.

In a statement, the committee said: “The UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) has announced and confirmed plans to visit Mozambique, New Zealand, Peru, Serbia, Afghanistan, Burundi, France, and Mexico at the conclusion of its latest session.”

Yousuf Amin Zazai, a political affairs analyst, highlighted the significance of these visits: “Human rights issues, such as citizens’ rights, prison conditions, and case reviews, are matters the government must allow to present a true picture of Afghanistan to the world.”

The Islamic Emirate has not yet commented on the committee’s planned visit to Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, some political analysts consider these visits important and emphasize the need to present a realistic picture of Afghanistan’s situation.

“If the objectives of these organizations are realistic, closely examining Afghanistan’s human, social, and cultural rights situation can be commendable, and the public will welcome such efforts,” said Abdul Jabbar Akbari, another political analyst.

The Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture is one of the eight UN committees related to human rights treaties.

All member states of the UN Convention Against Torture are required to submit regular reports on how they are implementing input from this committee.

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An Afghan environment official on Sunday said the country must be allowed to participate in future global climate talks, after returning from COP29 in Baku where Taliban officials attended for the first time.

The Afghan delegation were invited as “guests” of the Azerbaijani hosts, not as a party directly involved in the negotiations.

It was the first time that an Afghan delegation had attended since the Taliban swept to power in August 2021, having failed to get an invite to the past two COPs (Conference of the Parties) held in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

“Afghanistan must participate in such conferences in the future,” said Matiul Haq Khalis, the director general of Afghanistan’s National Environmental Protection Agency, at a press conference on Sunday.

He described Afghanistan’s attendance last month at the talks as a “big achievement.”

“We participated in the conference this year so that we could raise the voice of the nation about the issues we are facing, what the needs of the people are, we must share these things with the world.”

He said the Afghan delegation had meetings with “19 different organizations and governments,” including with delegations from Russia, Qatar, Azerbaijan and Bangladesh.

Afghanistan is among the countries most vulnerable to global warming, despite minimal emissions, and the Taliban government have argued that their political isolation should not bar them from international climate talks.

The government has imposed an austere version of sharia Islamic law since taking power, severely restricting women’s participation in public life in what the United Nations has called a “gender apartheid.”

Among the poorest countries in the world after decades of war, Afghanistan is particularly exposed to the effects of climate change, which scientists say is spurring extreme weather including prolonged drought, frequent floods, and declining agricultural productivity.

The United Nations has also called for action to help Afghanistan build resilience and for the country’s participation in international talks.

Developed countries have committed to providing $100 billion per year in climate finance through 2025 to help developing nations prepare for worsening climate impacts and wean their economies off fossil fuels.

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Foreign Minister Wang Yi also said he would seek to boost investment in the country at a meeting with his Central Asian counterparts

China is keen to expand energy cooperation with Turkmenistan, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Saturday.

Wang met his counterpart Rashid Meredov, who is also Turkmenistan’s vice-president, on the sidelines of the China-Central Asia Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Chengdu, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Wang also said China was willing to further expand the scale of trade and investment cooperation with Turkmenistan and would encourage more Chinese enterprises to invest in the country.

The meeting, which ends on Sunday, was also attended by the foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, Central Asian partners that are growing in importance for China.

Wang also met Jeenbek Kulubaev, the foreign minister of Kyrgyzstan, a key player in an US$8 billion rail project that starts in Kashgar in China’s western Xinjiang region and goes through southwest Kyrgyzstan before ending in Andijan in eastern Uzbekistan.

The rail project is designed to cut the freight journey between China and Europe by 900km (560 miles), serving as a faster and cheaper alternative to existing China-Europe land routes, most of which pass through Russia.

The project was first proposed in the 1990s but had been beset by a series of technical, political and geopolitical problems before the three countries reached an agreement in June.

While in Chengdu, Wang also met his Nepalese counterpart Arzu Rana Deuba on Friday.

Deuba was visiting to prepare for the visit of Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, which starts on Monday.

According to the Nepalese foreign ministry, the talks focused on trade, tourism and connectivity projects – including a cross-border railway project and a tunnel linking the capital Kathmandu to Chhahare in Nuwakot district, a stop on a major trade route between the two countries.

“China is ready to work with Nepal to embrace new prospects for the development of China-Nepal relations by taking the opportunity of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties next year,” Wang said, adding that the two sides had made joint efforts to promote cooperation.

Deuba said Nepal appreciated the concept of building a community with a shared future for humanity, and was willing to take part in President Xi Jinping’s Global Development Initiative.

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