Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Strengthening regional cooperation in Central Asia is one of the most powerful ways to foster development and would enable the states of the region to better meet the daunting individual and collective challenges they face.
The United States must recognize that former Soviet states are and will continue to be an important focus of Russia’s foreign policy, and should take a broader regional view to its relationships with countries in Russia's sphere of influence.
The Obama administration needs a new approach to the Caspian region that provides opportunities for local leaders to engage with the United States in economic and political development.
Russia’s aggressive behavior in Georgia will have implications throughout the Caspian Sea Region, forcing Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan to rethink their strategic priorities with the West. Russia has reasserted itself as the dominant player in the region and revealed how difficult it is for the U.S. to maintain a strategic position around the Caspian.
Discussants review how to improve relations between the U.S. and Turkmenistan through economic partnerships and development aid.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Evan Feigenbaum elaborated on his perspective of the current state of U.S.-Turkmenistan relations and offered his thoughts on how the two countries can move forward.
Recent high-level meetings between Putin and Central Asian leaders and the conclusion of several deals that seem to give Russia more power over the latter’s oil and gas have catapulted Russian-Central Asian relations back into the spotlight, and cast them as amicable.
None of the five Central Asian states have fulfilled the democratic aspirations that were held by their citizens some fifteen years ago, not to mention the aspirations held by people like us, outside observers, the analysts and activists that are gathered at this meeting.
A discussion of the national interests and strategies of the U.S., Russia, and China in the region. Has a new Great Game taken shape? What kinds of competition and what degree of cooperation can be expected? How will political and social dynamics within Central Asia affect the plans of the great powers?
This event featured presentations by Turkmenistan's two major opposition leaders living abroad, Nurmuhammed Khanamov and Khudayberdy Orazov, speaking and participating in a discussion via live video-conference from Berlin. Carnegie Endowment Senior Associate Martha Brill Olcott moderated the event.