Abstract
First introduced in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has come to encompass a wide range of activities, from large-scale infrastructure projects and expanding trade relations to cultural and educational exchange across Eurasia and Africa. Although these dimensions are well covered in the existing literature, the more routine and practical roles of Confucius Institutes (CIs) - especially where energy cooperation intersects with vocationally oriented language training - remain comparatively underexplored. Drawing on a qualitative comparative design, this study examines the distribution and everyday operation of Confucius Institutes in Central Asia and North Africa using institutional materials, official trade statistics, and recent academic work.Rather than following trade volumes in any straightforward way, the presence and orientation of Confucius Institutes appear to be shaped by a combination of host-country policy priorities, labour-market needs, and the sectoral profile of ongoing energy and infrastructure projects. In Central Asia, CIs are commonly embedded in pragmatic language training linked to employment in oil, gas, and transport-related fields. In North Africa, Confucius Institutes are frequently involved in cultural programming and business-oriented events. Much of this activity takes place alongside language teaching and includes public lectures, exchanges, and occasional discussion of sustainability-related topics.The comparison points to differences in how similar institutional arrangements are taken up in different regional contexts. In some settings, Confucius Institutes are closely connected to local development needs and routine forms of cooperation, while in others they remain more loosely associated with cultural exchange activities.