| Volume 7, Number 2, April 2010 |
Russia In Central Asia
by Farkhad Tolipov 法尔哈德·托利波夫 |
The European Union Policy
in Central Asia
by Sébastien Peyrouse 瑟巴司倩·培儒斯 |
The Year 1991: Russia’s Responsibility
(Yeltsin vs. Gorbachev)
On October 18 2004, the Russian Federation joined the Central Asian Cooperation Organization (CACO) and so can be called a Central Asian state. This distorted the region’s geography and changed its political composition. On December 13 1991, five Central Asian states (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) set up this integration structure in response to the Soviet Union’s breakup and the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which was, at first, purely Slavic.
The events of 1991 are directly related to the present and provide answers to many of the questions raised by the transformations going on in the newly independent states (NIS) and their foreign policy. It is often—and correctly—said that the former Soviet republics were not ready for independence; in fact, it seems that Russia itself was not ready for it. Yet it was Russia that sent the ball of breakup rolling...
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FACED with an exponentially growing Chinese presence and the continuation of strong Russian influence, the European Union is seeking to find its place in Central Asia. Beyond grand discourses about the partnership between the European Union and the Central Asian states, the mutual relations have until recently remained rather limited: hindered by the absence of a common long-term Strategy, they have faltered on Brussels’ inability to reconcile political and economic objectives and the failure of numerous programmes, leaving the image of a bureaucratic institution which is complex, costly and scarcely effective. However, since 2007, the EU has sought to speak in a more affirmative voice in Central Asia: the deterioration of the situation in Afghanistan, the upheavals in the Middle East, tensions over energy supplies with Russia, China’s rise to power and the scathing critiques of the Central Asian capitals toward Washington, all these elements have prepared the ground for the EU to play its hand...
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| Issue 7.2 |
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Priceless Friendship
—Matteo Ricci’s Legacy
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