From energy resources to economic growth, the region holds key assets for US foreign policy, trade, and security interests When President-elect Donald Trump starts his second term January 20, he will face a full foreign policy agenda, with wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, Taiwan tensions, and looming trade disputes with China, Mexico, and... Read More

Last week, I sent this Wikihow article to Medvedev. He’s clearly read it and taken it seriously. There are a lot of Westerners who do not understand why there are so many central Asians in Moscow. I have seen people who I know for a fact are State Department activists attempting to sell anti-Russian sentiment... Read More

Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban just announced the country will re-open its embassy in Muscat, Oman. This follows the United Arab Emirates’ acceptance of the credentials of the Afghan ambassador in August. And in January, Chinese leader Xi Jinping personally accepted the credentials of the Afghan ambassador to Beijing. (China’s new ambassador to Afghanistan was officially received... Read More

Ahmad Massoud, the leader of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, recently declared he will defeat the Taliban “no matter the odds.� For Massoud to mount a military threat to the Taliban, he would need the cooperation of the Central Asian republics, Iran or Pakistan (among others) to do the job. However, Afghanistan’s neighbors have... Read More

Afghanistan and Uzbekistan strengthen trade ties with new agreements, including the Termez International Trade Center and the UAP Railway Project. Trade between Afghanistan and its neighbors, including Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan, is growing rapidly, with projects like the TAPI Gas Pipeline and Trans-Afghan Corridor. Potential challenges include regional instability, U.S. sanctions, and internal Afghan political... Read More

A delegation from Uzbekistan visited Washington, D.C. to advocate for the repeal of the Jackson-Vanik amendment and establish normal trade relations with the U.S. U.S. legislation is being introduced to grant permanent normal trade relations status to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. The U.S. has been less proactive in Central Asia compared to China and Russia,... Read More

The Middle Corridor is a multimodal transport corridor connecting China to Europe. Europe’s limited prospects are opposed to Asia which will see an increasing share of global GDP rising from about 45% today to around 58% by 2030. The republics will use the Middle Corridor to increase trade with Europe, but can’t ignore their neighbors... Read More

The whole Russia-Taliban affair involves a humongous package – encompassing oil, gas, minerals and loads of rail connectivity. This past Sunday in Doha, I had a meeting with three high-level representatives of the Taliban Political Office in Qatar, including a founding member of the body (in 2012) and a key official of the previous Taliban... Read More

Though Iran is famous (or infamous) for its growing suite of weapons, recently the Islamic Republic has been making progress in civil aerospace. Iran Observer recently reported that Iran mastered the single crystal turbine blade technology of the CFM56-5B series aircraft engine, widely used in many Boeing and Airbus aircraft. Single-crystal technology, which is highly... Read More

Kabul’s key asset is its location but it needs to make a positive contribution to the region by being a good neighbor. The best way forward for Kabul is to keep the Islamic State et al. boxed in, which may require intelligence sharing and cooperation with the neighbors and the U.S. to secure the country... Read More

On Feb. 18 and 19, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres convened a meeting in Doha, Qatar, to discuss the “evolving situation� in Afghanistan and future engagement with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The Taliban declined an invitation to the meeting after the U.N. refused their conditions, including recognizing the Taliban as the legitimate government of... Read More

In January 2024, Chinese president Xi Jinping accepted the credentials of the ambassador of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban) to China. And in September 2023 China was the first country to name a new ambassador to the Islamic Emirate since August 2021. Today, over a dozen countries maintain diplomatic representation in Kabul, though... Read More

While the U.S., Russia and Europe are trying to quell (or aggravate) crises simultaneously in Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, Israel/Gaza, the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea/Yemen, Uzbekistan and China have quietly elevated their partnership. Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev made a state visit to China on Jan. 23-25, visiting Beijing and Shenzen. While there he met... Read More

Israel’s counterattack on the Gaza Strip, in retaliation for the Oct. 7 attack by the Islamic Resistance Movement (“Hamas�), has caused allegedly 20,000 deaths among Palestinian civilians. Every country in the Muslim world has seen popular rejection of Israel’s assault, and the Central Asian republics are no exception. The Central Asian people identify with their... Read More

TURKISTAN – As geopolitical insanity zooms off the charts at the end of 2023, let us seek solace in a brief Silk Road magic carpet ride. This comes to you from a northern strand of the Ancient Silk Roads in Kazakhstan, from the Ili valley in Western China through the Dzungarian Gate all the way... Read More

Since independence in 1991, the Central Asian republics have had an up and down relationship with the American monitors of worldwide religious freedom, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and the U.S. State Department Office of International Religious Freedom. In its 2023 report, USCIRF criticized four of the five Central Asian republics,... Read More

It was a day 32 years in the making, but the American president finally met the assembled leaders of the five Central Asian republics on the sidelines of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly. According to the White House, President Biden welcomed discussion on strengthening the republics’ “sovereignty, resilience, and prosperity� while... Read More

The American filmmaker Woody Allen said, ““Eighty percent of success is showing up.� If he is correct, America is not succeeding in Central Asia. But the rulers of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and China, Xi Jinping, leave nothing to chance: Xj has visited every one of the republics and has been to Kazakhstan four times and... Read More

Bukhara The Noble, the “Dome of Islam�, with a history stretching back 2.500 years, bears too many marvels to mention: from the two-millennia-old Ark, a fortress around which the city developed, to the 48-meter high Kalon minaret, built in 1127, which so impressed Genghis Khan that he ordered it not to be razed. The elegant,... Read More

Uzbekistan held a snap election for president on 9 July 2023, and the voters went to the polls and returned the incumbent, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, to the job with 87.05 % vote (on an 80.12% turnout). The vote gives Mirziyoyev, in office since 2016, a seven-year term. The recently approved constitution lengthened presidential terms from 5... Read More