Geopolitics or Partnership? Central Asia Policy after the Russian-Georgian War
Posted on 2009-02-18.
von Stefan Meister, Alexander Rahr
The new American government under Barack Obama has the opportunity to avoid geopolitical confrontations in Central Asia and seek a path leading to the constructive integration of Russia and other states in the Caspian region into the Afghan peace mission. The EU has long spoken out in favor of broad cooperation on the part of all actors in the region. But what strategy is Russia pursuing? The war between Russia and Georgia in the summer of 2008 and Moscow’s unilateral recognition of the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia have sent shock waves throughout Central Asia. For the first time since the end of the Soviet Union, Russia has waged a war against a CIS state, altering existing borders by force. To this day, no government in Central Asia has shown any willingness to obey Russia’s demands and recognize the two renegade Georgian provinces as sovereign states. For the EU the question is whether it should cooperate closely with Russia in Central Asia or continue to develop its own strategy in the region. The DGAP Russia-Eurasia Centre discussed the Central Asia strategies of Russia and the EU at an expert breakfast with Aleksei Malashenko from the Moscow Carnegie Center, Johannes Regenbrecht, Head of the German Foreign Ministry’s Division for the Southern Caucasus and Central Asia, and with other German experts.
