When Kazakhstan launched Central Asia’s first large-scale cloud-seeding program on May 17, it called it a high-tech response to drought, water scarcity, and accelerating desertification.

Kazakhstan has offered to host Iran's enriched uranium in order to streamline a potential peace deal between Tehran and Washington. The offer comes more than 30 years after a massive haul of weapons-grade uranium was taken out of the Central Asian country and flown to the US.

Russia is investing hundreds of millions of dollars to build schools and universities across Central Asia, reinforcing the use of the Russian language at a time when younger generations in the region are increasingly exposed to Western and Chinese influences.