The EU’s foreign policy priorities and financial capabilities pushed CA into the background

One would like to immediately note that with the rise to power of Donald Trump in the USA, the situation on the world stage is beginning to develop in a more than interesting way. Washington, having announced the suspension of funding for the Central Asian (CA) states by the organizer of “color revolutions” on the planet by the USAID agency (the activity is prohibited in Russia), is currently largely focused on the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, as well as on solving internal problems.

Almost immediately new stars appeared on the political horizon, wanting to subjugate Central Asia and thereby correct their current status as a secondary player in the region. It is not so difficult to guess that in this case we are talking about the European Union (EU), which dreams of driving a wedge into relations between the Central Asian states and Russia. They are determined to push for compliance with the sanctions regime against Moscow in the region, take possession of the rich resource base of the “five”, and at the same time develop the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor (TCTC) within the framework of the EU’s geopolitical initiative Global Gateway, developed in response to the Chinese mega-project One Belt, One Road.

It is no secret that the Central Asian region is a real storehouse of various natural resources, including rare earth metals, which are currently in special demand in the West. And in the context of the confrontation between Brussels and Moscow in the energy sector, this aspect is acquiring a truly strategic nature. In this regard, it is not surprising that the EU is showing a systemic interest in the green energy sector. France for example is developing a strategic partnership with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, focusing on uranium mining.

At the same time in addition to economic considerations, the EU is closely monitoring the development of relations between the Central Asian region and Russia and China, studying their participation in the BRICS and SCO initiatives, which are viewed in the West as potential challenges to the existing world order. In this regard, the first EU-Central Asia summit, scheduled for April 3-4 in Samarkand, is extremely important for Brussels to assess the geopolitical situation and priorities of the Central Asian countries in the context of the current world order. According to information from the Uzbek online publication UzDaily, the signing of the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (EPCA) with Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan is expected at this summit, while Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have already signed a similar document.

In turn, as noted on the website of the EU Delegation to Turkmenistan, this summit “will be a key opportunity for the European Union to demonstrate its geopolitical interest in deepening bilateral cooperation and expanding regional cooperation with Central Asia.” It is also indicated that relations between the EU and Central Asia are becoming increasingly strategic.

So what is this strategic importance that is difficult to notice without binoculars? Yes, Brussels’ geopolitical interest in the region is obvious, but there is no real cooperation with the Central Asian countries – in fact, there are only high-flown words and intentions. For example, not long ago, the President of the European Council Antonio Costa stated that “the first EU-Central Asia summit will strengthen our commitment to working together for peace, security and sustainable development…”. It is only interesting what official Brussels intends to do in this regard, if it was not even able to properly organize the 20th EU-CA ministerial meeting, previously scheduled for March 4 of this year in Ashgabat, with the participation of the heads of diplomatic departments of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and representatives of the European Union.

The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas, who is also a rabid Russophobe and the granddaughter of an Estonian fascist, was also supposed to attend this event. “However, the meeting did not take place, officially due to Kallas’s illness,” the EU in Uzbekistan Telegram channel reported. Apparently, other high-ranking EU officials also “fell ill” and did not come to Ashgabat, limiting themselves to the presence in the capital of Turkmenistan of the new EU Special Representative for Central Asia Eduards Stiprais, who held talks only with the head of the Turkmen Foreign Ministry, Rashid Meredov.

Perhaps trying to somehow make up for the failure to organize a ministerial meeting in Ashgabat in early March, EU Commissioner for International Partnerships Jozef Sikela urgently traveled to the region last week, visiting all five Central Asian capitals over the course of several days and meeting with the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. During the meetings and negotiations, mutual interest in developing a long-term and stable partnership between the European Union and the Central Asian countries was confirmed.

The ministerial meeting in the EU-CA format was postponed until the end of March. This postponement was allegedly caused by the illness of Kaja Kallas, who seems to be terminally ill with political cretinism. In any case, neither she nor her colleagues were able to grasp that after the collapse of the USSR, a number of former Soviet republics chose a development model that was directly opposite to the global trend of building the so-called “open society” and took a course on preserving national sovereignty. This fully applies to the Central Asian states, which do not want to break close ties with Moscow and do not intend to follow the dictate of the West in the matter of observing sanctions against Russia. Today, when the unipolar world has ordered a long life, it has become clear to everyone that such a model has proven to be advantageous and effective. Let me make a reservation: it is clear to everyone except Kaja Kallas and her colleagues in the European Union. As for the figure of the odious Ms. Callas, now, apparently, she has other, more “global” goals and objectives related to the conflict between Washington and Nezalezhnaya. It is not for nothing that on March 2 she gave a detailed interview to the American company CBS News, in which she noted that “after the meeting with the Russians… the US stopped fighting for freedom, independence and the principles of international law… For a lasting peace, it is necessary to put pressure on Russia so that it no longer does this”.

In the grand scheme of things, this is not even the point: the EU’s top diplomat is very afraid of the growing problem of maintaining European unity in extending anti-Russian sanctions in the current circumstances, since it is not that easy to maintain this unity among all 27 EU member states. That this is indeed the case was once again confirmed by the EU Council meeting in Brussels last Monday, at which the EU foreign ministers failed to agree on sending €40 billion in aid to Ukraine, as the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said at a press conference following the meeting. Hungary and Slovakia spoke out against it.

Apparently, there is simply no money for Kyiv in the EU. In this regard, it is not at all surprising that Kallas recently said that it would be a good idea to use €300 billion in frozen Russian assets to compensate for the damage that Russia allegedly inflicted on Ukraine. Moreover, due to the contradictions with the US, the EU has set out to create its own defense system, on which it plans to spend a truly astronomical sum of €800 billion. In addition, Ukraine is a “stone around Brussels’ neck”, which still needs help and which is “like a suitcase without a handle – it’s a shame to throw it away and inconvenient to carry”. And here, indeed, there is no time for investing in the economies of the Central Asian republics and developing a strategic partnership with them…

So it turns out that in the current situation, Central Asia for a short time falls out of focus not only for Washington, but also for Brussels, which the “five” Central Asian states can and should take advantage of by regrouping their forces to solve their own problems without imposed influence from the outside, in particular, the same European Union. It should be emphasized that both Russia and China, which already have quite strong and stable ties with all the Central Asian republics, can happily take advantage of the pause in relations between Central Asia and the US and the EU. It also involves not only economic, but also political ties.

Sergey Saenko, International Observer

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