On October 13, Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan met with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and participated in the 6th summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Astana (CCTV). Wang conveyed President Xi Jinping’s cordial greetings and best wishes to Tokayev, noting that President Xi paid a successful visit to Kazakhstan last month and the two heads of state agreed to promote the building of a China-Kazakhstan community with a shared future defined by lasting friendship, a high degree of mutual trust and sharing weal and woe, setting the direction for the development of bilateral relations in the new situation. Addressing the sixth CICA summit, Wang urged the CICA participants to strengthen solidarity and coordination, properly tackle challenges, and endeavor to build an Asian community with a shared future. Wang emphasized that China has all along viewed CICA's development from a strategic and long-term perspective, and will utilize its role as the coordinating country to boost cooperation in agriculture, green development, finance and banking, as well as exchanges among think tanks, to work with all parties and to bring CICA to a new height.

The nomination of candidates for the presidential elections in Kazakhstan scheduled for November 20th began on September 23rd and ended on October 11th (The Paper). “The Central Election Commission received documents from 12 candidates nominated by national public associations,” said CEC Secretary Mukhtar Yerman on October 12th. The CEC has announced that among the 12 presidential candidates who submitted their applications, only 6 presidential candidates, including Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Nurlan Auesbayev, Meiram Kazhyken, Zhiguli Dairabayev, Saltanat Tursynbekova, and Karakat Abden, met the requirements. To be eligible to run for the presidential office, a candidate must have Kazakhstani citizenship by birth, must have lived in Kazakhstan for the past 15 years, should have a higher education, be at least 40 years old, have a minimum of five years of experience working in public service or elected positions, and be fluent in the state language (Kazakh). The election campaign before the presidential elections in Kazakhstan will officially start on October 21, 2022, and end on November 18. November 19 is the day of silence before the election, and the next day is the election day.

Elsewhere in Uzbekistan, the restoration of the historical and cultural heritage sites inside Khiva has been undertaken by the cultural heritage protection center under the China Railway Northwest Research Institute Co. Ltd. (People's Daily Online) The China Railway Northwest Research Institute has sent a professional cultural relic restoration team to Khiva to check on the condition of the ancient city, to collect various kinds of information about the ancient buildings through mapping, surveying, and sampling, and to come up with solutions for restoration. The Chinese engineers found that the leakage of surface water, structural deformations and other factors have caused various degrees of sinking among the buildings, which has led to slanted walls and cracks on the domes of the mosque and theology school inside the ancient city. Therefore, they have adopted a minimal intervention solution for the restoration of the ancient buildings, reinforcing and repairing them using sophisticated technologies to ensure their structural integrity and safety, all in order to preserve the historical value of the heritage sites.

On October 6th, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, the chairperson of the Upper Chamber of the National Council of Turkmenistan and the former president of the Central Asian state, shared his thoughts with the readers of People’s Daily on the past and the future of the relations between Turkmenistan and China. (People's Daily) He pointed out that China has shown strong support for the proposals raised by Turkmenistan in the UN and Turkmenistan has always had a firm and clear stance on the concerns of China, including respect for China's territorial integrity and national reunification. He also noted that China's objectiveness in its cooperation with Central Asia has played a constructive role in the political and economic development of the region and that China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Turkmenistan's development strategy to revive the Silk Road are moving towards a synergic direction. He wished the 20th CPC National Congress to be a success, and expressing his country's commitment to friendly cooperation with China, he added that the success of the congress will have notable positive impacts on not only China's development but also on the overall political and economic situation all around the world.