AT ITS CENTRE, AN “ISTAN” OF BOUNTIFUL, BOUNTIFUL LANDS
Three of the Central Asian Republics in one place; an “istan” of bountiful, bountiful lands bordering the UTT, that is, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, as well as Iran, Pakistan and China: Afghanistan!
Afghanistan lies at the crossing point that connects Central Asia with South Asia and Western China with Eastern Iran. All the roads that run, and are planned to run, from Central Asia to South Asia had to pass through Afghanistan.
On the pattern side of the tasselled knitting: starting from this geographical reality, the post-Taliban administration of Afghanistan, and the USA, which wants to strengthen this administration and turn it into a reliable ally able to stand on its own feet!
Countries neighbouring Afghanistan, such as the Central Asian Republics, Iran, China and Pakistan, have launched policies aimed at making Afghanistan the centre of regional trade. Especially since 2006, many different projects for establishing transport infrastructure in Afghanistan and in the countries neighbouring Afghanistan have come onto the agenda, and a virtual competition of projects has begun. The Greater Central Asia initiative put into effect by the USA has played an important role in this activity in Afghanistan and its neighbours. This process is described as the building of the missing link in the Modern Silk Road that will bring security and prosperity to the Eurasian continent.
Knit one, purl one: AfGHANIstan at the centre of the Greater Central Asia equation
Central Asia is one of the geopolitical regions that emerged as a result of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In the terminology of international relations, Central Asia is a concept used to define the geography in which the five states that became independent with the dissolution of the Soviet Union (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) are located. Matters such as the meaning of Central Asia, the area it covers and the importance it carries may differ according to the various branches of the social sciences. Most historians, sociologists and anthropologists, however, do not consider the designation Central Asia correct, and prefer instead to use the concept of Turkestan or Western Turkestan.
In 1993 the presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan declared that the region in which their countries are located is a single whole and should be called Central Asia (Central Asia, Sentralnaya Aziya). Yet neither this official statement nor the initiatives undertaken by the five states on regional cooperation and partnership have put an end to the debates over the naming, borders and integrity of the region. The “Greater Central Asia Partnership” project, which was put forward in 2005 and later turned into the official policy of the USA, had also rekindled these debates.
Professor S. Frederick Starr of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, affiliated with Johns Hopkins University in Washington, addressed the long-term policies the USA should pursue in Central and South Asia in the article entitled ‘Cooperation for Greater Central Asia and Afghanistan’.
In his study entitled “A Greater Central Asia Partnership for Afganistan and Its Neighbours”, published in March 2005, Starr had argued that proactive policies needed to be pursued in “Greater Central Asia” in order to sustain the gains achieved in Afghanistan in the name of the fight against terrorism, and had proposed in this context the creation of a new regional cooperation structure under the leadership of the USA.
The initiative launched by Starr was before long supported by the US Department of State as well, and the structure of the US Department of State was changed in line with Starr’s views. The five Central Asian republics, which had previously fallen within the area of responsibility of the US Department of State’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, were transferred from there to the area of responsibility of the Bureau of South Asian Affairs. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced during her visit to the Central Asian countries in October 2005 that the Central Asian countries had been included in the area of responsibility of the Department’s South Asia Bureau. In her statement of 5 January 2006, Rice emphasised that Central Asia and South Asia were high on the list of global priorities, that the White House was taking the possibility of establishing a Greater Central Asia seriously, and that this was an important goal.
On 1 April 2006 the “First Conference on Cooperation in Greater Central Asia” was held in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, who had been appointed head of the South Asia Bureau, and Kazakhstan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Tokayev also took part in the conference hosted by President Karzai of Afghanistan. The aim of the Kabul Conference was declared to be, by making use of the advantages provided by the latest developments in Afghanistan, the reopening of trade routes that had been closed for a century and the securing of prosperity and security in this vast part of Eurasia through continental trade. The main focus of the conference was formed by ideas on opening the basic transport routes from Central Asia to the Indian Ocean, South Asia and beyond.
Afghanistan is a country of key importance with regard to the emergence of the Greater Central Asia initiative, the goals of the project and the chances of success of these goals. It can even be said that the future of Afghanistan and the future of the project are regarded as one and the same. Starr emphasises this as follows: “Afghanistan is at a turning point. The security environment is steadily improving, institutional innovations continue, the economy is developing, and the open political system is steadily taking root at both local and national level. It would be no exaggeration to declare Afghanistan the first great victory of the international war on terror. But this does not mean that everything is over. Now is the time to attend urgently to the new horizons opened by the victory.
Starr argues that most of the internal problems Afghanistan faces are regional in character, and that a solution to them can therefore be found only through a regional approach. Emphasising the importance of reviving regional and continental transport and trade with its neighbours, Starr states that this will be the real goal of the Greater Central Asia Partnership. In his speech to Congress on 26 April 2006, US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, head of the South Asia Bureau, said that Afghanistan’s opening to the outside world had allowed it to cease being a barrier between Central and South Asia and to become a bridge, and that this gave rise to new opportunities. Boucher announced that the aim was to revive the deep-rooted ties between South and Central Asia and to create new ties in the fields of trade, transport, democracy, energy and communications. Boucher states that, with the natural gas of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan and the hydropower of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, an advanced regional power grid could be woven from Almaty to New Delhi.
It is high time to study this information and reflect on the dynamics, Sir!
Keywords: Kazakhstan Silk Road Afghanistan
Translated from the Turkish original.