The draft Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea provides for the possibility for the participating countries to lay underwater pipelines, RIA Novosti reports with reference to the document published by the government of the Russian Federation.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday on a visit to Lebanon that conditions in Syria are not yet right for refugees to return, an issue which has led to a dispute between Lebanon’s foreign minister and the U.N. refugee agency, Reuters reports.

Chinese companies are planning to implement a project to extract tungsten, molybdenum and copper in the Samarkand region of Uzbekistan.

OPEC agreed on Friday on a modest increase in oil production from July after its leader Saudi Arabia persuaded arch-rival Iran to cooperate amid calls from major consumers to help reduce the price of crude and avoid a supply shortage, Reuters reports.

In terms of communications, the biggest issue in Turkmenistan is related to the transportation of gas, mainly by pipelines such as Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI), as well as the creation of infrastructure for liquefied natural gas, the UN Development Program (UNDP) said in a statement referring to the opinion of the Senior Adviser of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Europe and CIS Ben Slay.

The Declaration of Cooperation (OPEC+), envisaging oil production cuts to balance the market is a platform that is open to all producers, said Suhail Mohamed Al Mazrouei, United Arab Emirates (UAE) Minister of Energy and Industry, and President of the OPEC Conference.

The afternoon foreign currency trading session ended at Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE). Twenty-four banks participated in the trades, KASE said in a message.

During military operations against PKK, the leaders of that terrorist organization often enter Iran illegally and hide there, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said, Turkish media reported June 22.

Beijing will fund most of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, since one of the main goals for China is having a rail link to the Mingbulak oil field in Uzbekistan’s section of the Ferghana Valley that Chinese companies are helping to develop, Bruce Pannier, expert on Central Asia, told Trend.

Trade turnover between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in January-May 2018 increased to $94 million, reports Sputnik Tajikistan.

Production of vegetable oil in Kazakhstan amounted to 30,600 tons in May 2018, the Committee for Statistics under the Ministry of Economics of Kazakhstan said in a message.

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh and Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih held a meeting in the Austrian capital of Vienna and discussed the latest developments in the global oil market.

Uzbekistan and Russia have reached an agreement on the construction of nuclear power plants (NPPs) in the republic.

Tajikistan will not attract loan from the World Bank (WB) for the construction of the Rogun hydro power plant (HPP), Reuters reported on June 21.

Pakistan is interested in intensifying cooperation with Turkmenistan and early completion of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project.

Political consultations took place in Brussels at the level of deputy foreign ministers of Turkmenistan and Belgium, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in a message June 22.

An increasingly shrill exchange of words between the United States and China that is threatening to trigger a global trade war has claimed another victim - Germany’s auto sector, Reuters reports.

The CASA-1000 project was discussed during the meeting of chairman of the lower house of the Tajik parliament Shukurjon Zuhurov and head of the Afghan government Abdullah Abdullah in Dushanbe on June 21

Kuwait has prepared a work plan for the implementation of decisions of the meeting of the Kyrgyz-Kuwaiti intergovernmental commission on economic and technical cooperation, the Kuwaiti Embassy in Kyrgyzstan said, Kyrgyz media outlets reported June 22.

The KazPrime indicator did not change on June 22, 2018, compared to the previous trading day and amounted to 10 percent per annum, Kazakh Stock Exchange said in a message.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of EU Affairs will be merged after the parliamentary and presidential election, which will be held on June 24 this year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, Turkish media reported June 22.

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh has left a meeting of the Ministerial Monitoring Committee of OPEC+ countries in Vienna before it ended, saying that "it was not good."

Iran's Minister of Economy and Financial Affairs Masoud Karbasian called for expansion of ties between Tehran and Bratislava in a range of areas, including business and economy.

The parliament of Kazakhstan adopted the "Law on Currency Regulation and Currency Control," Kazakh media outlets report.

Russian carrier Ural Airlines will launch new regular Sochi-Tashkent flights from July 18, the Russian company announced.