A group of doctors is pleading with EU leaders to pressure Israel to end its siege on Gaza. Members of Doctors Without Borders revealed the extreme conditions they’re working under and said that the world didn’t want to believe them.
Chinese President Xi Jinping reached Kazakhstan on Monday to attend the second China–Central Asia Summit, a high-stakes diplomatic gathering aimed at deepening Beijing’s economic and strategic ties with the region.
The summit, which will be held on Tuesday in the Kazakh capital Astana, comes at a time when China is intensifying its outreach to Central Asian countries amid shifting global power alignments — and mounting tensions in neighbouring Iran, which is roiled in an escalating conflict with Israel.
The summit will bring together the heads of state from all five Central Asian nations — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan — along with Xi.
The Astana summit also carries symbolic weight: it is the first time that the five Central Asian nations are holding a summit in the region with the leader of another country.
So, what is the importance of the China-Central Asia Summit? And is China battling both the United States and Russia for influence in the region?
On Monday, Xi was greeted by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and other senior officials at the airport in Astana. The Astana summit follows the inaugural May 2023 China–Central Asia Summit, which was held in Xi’an, the capital city of China’s Shaanxi province.
Xi is expected to be in Astana from June 16 to 18 and is scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with Kazakhstan’s leaders on Monday before the summit on June 17.
At the summit, he is expected to deliver a keynote speech and “exchange views on the achievements of the China-Central Asia mechanism, mutually beneficial cooperation under the framework, and international and regional hotspot issues,” said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson.
The office of Kazakhstan’s president noted that both countries are “set to further strengthen bilateral ties” and Xi will also chair “high-level talks with President [Tokayev] focused on deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership”.
Tokayev, who has been in office since 2019, is a fluent Mandarin speaker and previously served as a diplomat in China.
Zhao Long, a senior research fellow at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS), told Al Jazeera that Central Asian countries see their partnership with China as a deep, multifaceted cooperation grounded in shared strategic and pragmatic interests.
“The alignment with China helps Central Asian states enhance their regional stability, pursue economic modernisation, and diversify their diplomatic portfolios,” said Zhao. Where Central Asia has abundant energy resources, he said, China offers vast markets, advanced technology, and infrastructure expertise.
Last Friday, Lin Jian, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, told a news briefing that establishing “the China-Central Asia mechanism was a unanimous decision among China and the five Central Asian countries, which dovetails with the region’s common desire to maintain stability and pursue high-quality development”.
Since China first formalised and chaired the China-Central Asia Summit in May 2023, Lin said, “China’s relations with Central Asian countries have entered a new era … injecting fresh impetus into regional development and delivering tangibly for the peoples of all six countries.”
“We believe through this summit, China and five Central Asian countries will further consolidate the foundation of mutual trust,” Lin added.
“During the summit, President Xi will also meet with these leaders and lay out the top-level plan for China’s relations with [the] five Central Asian countries,” said the spokesperson.
SIIS’s Zhao said Xi’s attendance at the second summit sends a clear message: “China places high strategic importance on Central Asia.”
Experts are dubbing the China-Central Asia Summit as a C5+1 framework, because of the five regional nations involved.
The United States first initiated the concept of such a summit with all five Central Asian nations in 2015, under then-US President Barack Obama. But at the time, the conclave was held at the level of foreign ministers. Then-US Secretary of State John Kerry led the first meeting in September 2015 on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
In January 2022, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a virtual summit with the five Central Asian state heads, and then in June 2025, he invited them for a follow-up conclave in India.
Meanwhile, in 2023, Xi hosted the leaders in Xi’an. Four months later, then-US President Joe Biden hosted the C5 state heads on the sidelines of the UNGA in New York. It was the first time a US president met with Central Asian heads of state under this framework.
But current US President Donald Trump’s tariff policies could upset that outreach from Washington. Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have all been tariffed at 10 percent.
Trump initially imposed an even higher 27 percent tariff on imports from Kazakhstan, the region’s largest economy, though as with all other countries, the US president has paused these rates, limiting tariffs to a flat 10 percent for now.
China has cited these tariff rates to project itself as a more reliable partner to Central Asia than the US. At the meeting with the foreign ministers of the region in April, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi criticised unilateralism, trade protectionism, and “the trend of anti-globalisation [that] has severely impacted the free trade system”.
The US, Wang said, was “undermining the rule-based multilateral trading system, and destabilising the global economy”.
The region, rich in uranium, oil, and rare earth metals, has become increasingly important to China as a key corridor for trade with Europe. Subsequently, China has increased its engagement with Central Asian countries.
Xi, who has curtailed his foreign visits since the COVID-19 pandemic, is visiting Kazakhstan for the third time since 2020. He visited in 2022, and then again in 2024.
Central Asia is also a critical part of Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) — a network of highways, railroads and ports connecting Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America — as a gateway to Europe.
Experts expect the BRI to figure prominently at the summit in Astana on Tuesday, with additional emphasis on collaboration in energy and sustainable development.
A planned $8bn railway connecting China’s Xinjiang region to Uzbekistan through Kyrgyzstan is likely to be on the agenda, the SIIS’s Zhao said. Construction on the project is scheduled to begin in July. Expected to be completed by 2030, the railway route will provide China with more direct access to Central Asia and reduce the three countries’ reliance on Russia’s transport infrastructure.
Additionally, Zhao said, the summit may feature agreements on reducing tariffs, streamlining customs procedures, and lowering non-tariff barriers to boost bilateral trade volumes.
A lot.
China is today the top trading partner of each of the five Central Asian republics.
China is also ramping up its investments in the region. It has committed to an estimated $26bn in investments in Kazakhstan, for instance.
It’s complicated.
Formerly parts of the Soviet Union, the five Central Asian republics have long belonged in Russia’s strategic sphere of influence. Millions of people from the five republics live and work in Russia, and since 2023, Moscow has become a supplier of natural gas to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, which have faced energy shortages — even though Central Asia was historically a supplier of energy to Russia.
But though Russia remains a major economic force in the region, China has overtaken it as the largest trading partner of Central Asian republics over the past three years — a period that has coincided with Russia’s war on Ukraine. Some of that increased trade, in fact, is believed to be the outcome of China using Central Asia as a conduit for exports to Russia of goods that face Western sanctions.
UN human rights chief Volker Türk condemned the “horrifying, unconscionable suffering” inflicted by Israel in Gaza. Speaking at a Human Rights Council session in Geneva, Switzerland, he accused Israel of blocking life-saving aid and called for impartial investigations on deadly attacks on civilians.
Four people have been handed suspended jail sentences of between 14 and 22 months by a Madrid court after being found guilty of a hate crime related to an effigy of Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior, Spain’s La Liga has said.
“The defendant who posted the video online received a special disqualification from working in education, sports, or recreational youth settings for four years and three months, while the others received three years and seven months,” a La Liga statement said on Monday.
They were all involved in hanging a banner reading “Madrid hates Real” and an inflatable black effigy in a replica of the Brazilian’s number 20 T-shirt on a bridge before a Copa del Rey match against Atletico Madrid in January 2023.
According to the ruling, one defendant was sentenced to 15 months in prison for a hate crime and an additional seven months for making threats, having distributed images of the act online. The other three were sentenced to seven months in prison for hate crimes and seven months for threats.
They will not serve prison time, however, after all four signed a letter of apology to Vinicius, Real Madrid, La Liga and the Spanish football federation (RFEF).
The first defendant was also fined 1,084 euros ($1,257) and the other three 720 euros ($835), with additional punishments including a 1km (0.6 miles) restraining order from Vinicius, his home and workplace, and a ban on approaching football stadiums during La Liga or RFEF matches.
They will all be required to participate in an educational programme on equal treatment and non-discrimination for the prison sentences imposed to be suspended.
There was no immediate confirmation from the court and no immediate reaction from Vinicius, who is currently playing in the FIFA Club World Cup in the United States.
La Liga has filed complaints about various incidents of racial abuse and threats against the Brazilian international in recent years.
On June 10, 2024, three Valencia football fans were sentenced to eight months in prison for hate crimes directed against Vinicius in May 2023 in what was the first conviction for racist insults in a football stadium in Spain.
Last September, a Spanish court sentenced a Mallorca fan who racially abused Vinicius in February 2023, and former Villarreal player Samuel Chukwueze a week later, to a year in prison and issued a three-year stadium ban.
Many Israelis are in shock after the country’s air defence system failed to intercept Iranian missiles, shattering their sense of security. But Palestinian citizens of Israel say they never felt safe to begin with.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, has warned that escalating hostilities between Israel and Iran, now in a fourth day, pose grave dangers to diplomacy and nuclear safety and has urged all parties to exercise maximum restraint.
Speaking at an emergency session of the United Nations nuclear watchdog’s Board of Governors on Monday in Vienna, Director General Grossi stressed that the region is at a critical juncture.
“Military escalation threatens lives, increases the chance of a radiological release with serious consequences for people and the environment, and delays indispensable work towards a diplomatic solution for the long-term assurance that Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon,” Grossi said.
The IAEA chief’s remarks came amid growing concern that the conflict could permanently damage efforts to revive nuclear talks with Tehran, already strained by years of mistrust and United States President Donald Trump’s torpedoing of the 2015 nuclear accord brokered by world powers with Iran.
Grossi also delivered a technical update on the status of Iranian nuclear facilities after Israeli bombardments.
Natanz, Iran’s main uranium enrichment plant, was among the sites hit on Friday. While its underground section was spared a direct strike, Grossi warned that vital equipment may have been damaged due to a power outage triggered by the attack.
He noted that radiation levels outside the facility remained normal and, critically, there was no evidence of contamination spreading beyond the site.
“The level of radioactivity outside the Natanz site has remained unchanged and at normal levels, indicating no external radiological impact to the population or the environment from this event,” he said.
In addition to Natanz, four nuclear installations in Isfahan province were also damaged. However, the Fordow enrichment site, the Bushehr nuclear power plant and a reactor still under construction appeared unaffected.
IAEA personnel remain on the ground in Iran and are ready to resume full monitoring once the security situation allows, Grossi said.
Meanwhile, Iran’s government is facing pressure at home to take a harder line. A bill reportedly being prepared in parliament could pave the way for Iran to exit the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, a move that would deal a severe blow to global nonproliferation efforts.