China Takes a Leadership Role in Central Asia

M. K. BhadrakumarThe First China-Central Asia Summit took place in the Chinese city of Xi’an, hosted by President Xi Jinping, May 18-19, 2023 One of the pleasures of the post-Cold War strategic discourses is that geopolitics is back with a bang. Earlier, the former Soviet Union and Communist China used to be in denial mode,…

The PRC’s Increasingly Activity in Central and South Asia

Vladimir Terehov At this point in the “Great World Game,” everything that is happening in Central and South Asia (CSA) is playing an increasingly important role. CSA here will mean a vast territory, with at least a dozen countries located on it today. From Kazakhstan in the north to Sri Lanka in the south and…

The United States is Making Significant Efforts to Reduce Russia’s and China’s Influence in Central Asia

Vladimir Platov The desire of Russia, along with China and its friendly countries, to implement the international integration project for Greater Eurasia’s development, which involves the EAEU’s cooperation with the SCO, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and, until recently, the European Union, has recently caused increasing rejection by the US and its Western allies….

Russia and Central Asia: A Great Peaceful Game

Timofei Bordachev The most important question for the Central Asian Five may be their ability to overcome the trap where they’re at a level of development when the destruction of the state is impossible, but so is reaching a new level in terms of the quality of life of the population. It is unlikely that Russia wants its most important southern neighbours to be in a position where the gap is insurmountable, writes Valdai Club Programme…

Eurasia’s Middle Corridor: An Atlanticist Frenzy to Stifle Europe-Asia Integration

Matthew Ehret Geopolitical interests between the Anglo-American establishment and the Sino-Russian-led axis will clash over the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route. On 12 December 2022, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) hosted a conference on the future of Eurasia’s Middle Corridor, a transport and energy infrastructure development project that stretches from the resource-rich Caspian Sea to Europe. At…

The Gray Wolf Returns to Central Asia: Turkey’s Ambitions for the Region

Erman Çete As a proponent of Pan-Turkism, Ankara is keen on expanding its influence across Central Asia, yet this foreign policy shift is likely to be checked by much bigger regional powers like China, Russia, and Iran. In November 2021, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared that the name of the intergovernmental group, the Turkic Council would be…

Why is India Arming Armenia Against Azerbaijan?

Yeghia Tashjian Trade routes and national security interests in the South Caucasus are central to New Delhi’s decision to arm Armenia After the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war and the shift in the South Caucasus balance of power toward Turkey, India has expressed concern that its vision to connect Europe and Russia to its Indian ports through the…

Russia Courts Muslim Countries as Strategic Eurasian Partners

Pepe Escobar Everything that matters in the complex process of Eurasia integration was once again at play in Astana, as the – renamed – Kazakh capital hosted the 6th Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA). The roll call was a Eurasian thing of beauty – featuring the leaders of Russia and Belarus (EAEU),…

Russia Warned SCO Partners about the Ulterior Motives Behind the US’ Central Asian Drills

Andrew Korybko The very fact that three of Russia’s CSTO military allies – one of whom Russian National Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev just claimed had survived a US-backed Color Revolution plot – are participating in multilateral military drills in the part of the world that the US-led West misleadingly describes as Moscow’s “sphere of…

A Eurasian Jigsaw: BRI and INSTC Interconnectivity Will Complete the Puzzle

Pepe Escobar Shrugging off western obstacles, Eurasia’s ambitious connectivity projects helmed by China and Russia are now progressing deep into Asia’s Heartland SAMARKAND – Interconnecting Inner Eurasia is an exercise in Taoist equilibrium: adding piece by piece, patiently, to a gigantic jigsaw puzzle. It takes time, skill, vision, and of course major breakthroughs. A key piece…

Samarkand at the Crossroads: From Timur to the BRI and SCO

Pepe Escobar From its ancient Silk Road role to China’s BRI project, Uzbekistan is set to remain an important geoeconomic hub in Central Asia SAMARKAND – The ultimate Silk Road city, set at an unrivaled Eurasian trade crossroads, is the ideal spot from which to examine where the New Silk Roads adventure is heading next. For…

Is the US Now Trying to Destabilize Uzbekistan?

Vladimir Platov Unfortunately, the failure of the recent attempt to create an armed conflict in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAR) has not dampened Washington’s ardor in searching for ways to destabilize the situation in Central Asia and in creating an additional inconvenience for Russia, which at present is conducting a special military operation to de-Nazify Ukraine, by…

Why is the US Trying to Provoke a Conflict on the Afghanistan—Tajikistan Border?

Valery Kulikov Ever since the withdrawal of the last US troops from Afghanistan and the fall of the country to the Taliban (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation), Washington has been unable to come to terms with the loss of its influence in the region. It is therefore doing all it can to…

Washington is Trying to Open a “Second Front” in Central Asia against Russia and China

Vladimir Platov The events in Kazakhstan conspired by the United States and the UK in January and the ongoing pressure of external factors experienced by the Central Asian region, primarily from the United States and a number of its Western allies, indicate the presence of continuing threats here. The escalation of US-Chinese conflict, and the special military…

Ukraine: The Tip of the Spear for the Imperialist Project

Ajamu Baraka Azov Battalion volunteers in Kyiv, Ukraine / credit: EPA/TASS/Sergey Dolzhenko Editor’s Note: This is based on a presentation the author gave during a February 6 webinar, “U.S./NATO Aggression at the Russian Border. No War with Russia.” The event was a conversation between Russian, Ukrainian and U.S. activists the United National Antiwar Coalition had organized. We have serious…

A Silent Turkish-Russian Standoff in Kazakhstan

Yeghia Tashjian Recent turmoil in Kazakhstan highlighted another Russian-Turkish fault line in Central Asia Photo Credit: The Cradle Turkey’s dream of a common army for Turkic countries may have been dashed by the quick Russian-led CSTO operation to subdue violent unrest in Kazakhstan early this year. Long seen as the pole of stability in Central Asia,…

Eurasia’s Ring of Fire: The Epic Struggle Over the Epicenter of U.S. Global Power

Alfred McCoy Throughout 2021, Americans were absorbed in arguments over mask mandates, school closings, and the meaning of the January 6th attack on the Capitol. Meanwhile, geopolitical hot spots were erupting across Eurasia, forming a veritable ring of fire around that vast land mass. Let’s circle that continent to visit just a few of those…

Turkey Draws Closer to the US and Europe

M. K. Bhadrakumar A US Navy destroyer crosses the Bosphorus to enter the Black Sea, as tensions simmer around Ukraine. (File photo)  Being a “swing state” may have tactical advantages but when life gets tough and the tough gets going, there could be consequences. Turkey once faced such a moment of truth a hundred years ago. It faces…