This vast Central Asian nation of 15.3 million also has coal, gold and uranium.
The central Asian country recently had to bail out its biggest banks - sounds familiar.
There are also big differences in the way the Central Asian countries perceive the outside world.
With so much to be gained by working together, why are Central Asian countries so divided?
If this happens, it would make him the first post-Soviet Central Asian president to leave voluntarily.
Scheduled to be completed by 2013, Nabucco would transport Azerbaijani and Central Asian gas to Europe.
Compared with his Central Asian empire-building predecessor, Genghis Khan, Temur emerges as not without virtues.
Sports officials in the Central Asian country say that the traditional dish may help the athletes' performance.
BBC: Kazakh Olympians seek to bring horsemeat to London 2012
Indeed, Central Asian governments often create a choke-hold on economies, preventing entrepreneurship that can lead to wealth creation.
That puts the Central Asian economy in a far better position than some of its less wealthy neighbours.
Clinton Tuesday at a Central Asian Conference on women in politics at her first stop in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
CNN: AllPolitics - Hillary Clinton Travels Through Former Soviet Republics
Iran is even facing unlikely competition from Afghanistan as an export route for Central Asian oil and gas.
Moreover, the new rail route cuts the distance for goods travelling from Europe to some Central Asian destinations.
The original supply deal for the line was for each Central Asian state to contribute to supplies to China.
Routing the gas through Iran would be avoided, and Central Asian republics wouldn't have to ship through Russian pipelines.
Threats to the two biggest countries historically came from their Central Asian hinterlands.
Top of the agenda was a meeting of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, a group that includes Central Asian nations.
As far as is known, Merah made no reference to any central Asian group during his standoff with authorities.
The borders of today's Central Asian republics were drawn in the 1920s, with political and strategic considerations in mind.
General David Petraeus, head of America's Central Command, says that Russia and its Central Asian neighbours will provide other routes.
You could avoid routing the gas through Iran, and free Central Asian republics from having to ship through Russian pipelines.
The UNESCO Observatory (ALMOCA) focuses on the cross-cultural creative education and arts-specific learning of cultural diversity in Central Asian countries.
Regional tensions have been further exacerbated by the different ways the various Central Asian countries have dealt with the post-Soviet transition.
Neighbouring Uzbekistan is the other Central Asian state that has provided a base, at Khanabad, for western forces fighting in Afghanistan.
Some Central Asian states, such as Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, have joined Afghanistan's proxy war by backing the Uzbek and Tajik factions.
With China already heavily investing in the two most important Central Asian energy suppliers, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, Russia may struggle to compete.
With him on the Shanghai riverfront last week were the presidents of three neighboring Central Asian republics -- Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgystan.
The related project is "Central Asian Network for Young Television Producers and support of key populations, " from UNESCO Cluster Office in Almaty.
Tajikistan has accused its central Asian neighbour, Uzbekistan, of imposing a blockade.
One is in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the United States deployed military forces to a number of Central Asian countries.
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