Without Russia: How Central Asia is building subjectivity and why it matters to Ukraine
While Ukraine's Defense Forces impose kinetic sanctions on Russia's military and critical infrastructure, Brzezinski's will is being implemented in Central Asia.
on November 15-16, the seventh Consultative Meeting of Central Asian Heads of State was held in Tashkent. It was attended by the leaders of six countries – Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and... Azerbaijan. Also present was the head of the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia.
On the eve of the summit, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev arrived in Uzbekistan on a state visit.
As I have already noted, we know very little about Kazakhstan. And about Uzbekistan as a (geo)political entity, we know even less.
The generalization of the signals is that Uzbekistan "produces" migrants, cotton, and pilaf. Although Uzbekistan already exceeds the part of Ukraine controlled by the Ukrainian government in terms of population, and the demographic situation there is many times better. In recent years, Uzbekistan's GDP growth has been 6-7%. In other words, in appearance, it is a kind of regional tiger that does not hesitate to promise Trump investments of $135 billion over 10 years.
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who served as the country's prime minister from 2003 to 2016, is generally considered to be the creator of this tiger. In 2016, he fully took the helm, carried out a number of reforms and, most notably, more or less normalized relations with his neighbors. Of course, not everything is rosy in the country, there are conflicts, but this is the topic of another conversation.
In fact, Mirziyoyev initiated the format of the summit of Central Asian heads of state in the fall of 2017, which allowed the spring of 2018 to bring together the region's heads of state in a narrow circle (and without Russia) after a ten-year break.
In the beginning, Mirziyoyev handed over the formal initiative to the more experienced Nursultan Nazarbayev, but now the summit platform is being fronted by Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan on at least equal terms.
The main results of the seventh meeting, which was traditionally called "historic".
The decision was made to allow Azerbaijan to join as a full member.
Approved: The Concept of Regional Security, Stability and Sustainable Development in Central Asia; Catalog of Security Risks in Central Asia and Measures to Prevent Them for 2026-2028.
Collectively supported Kyrgyzstan as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2027-2028.
At the same time, the vector of further institutionalization of the Consultative Meeting format was outlined. In fact, Tokayev and Mirziyoyev spoke in unison about the need to expand the mandate of the "Council of National Coordinators for the Preparation of Consultative Meetings of the Heads of State of Central Asia".
"I believe that it is time to strengthen its role by developing strategic vectors for the development of the region, not just monitoring the implementation of the agreements," Tokayev said .
He also suggested considering the possibility of including the Central Asian Expert Forum in the system of regional cooperation "with its transformation into a key platform for research and the formation of common approaches.".
Obviously, neither China, nor Russia, nor the United States – each in its own way – will remain indifferent to these attempts to increase collective subjectivity. We are interested in all this as an alternative to Russia in terms of sources of raw materials and logistics routes. Plus security issues.
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