Aug 6, 2021: Leaders of five Central Asian countries have gathered in Turkmenistan for talks, with the spiral of the war in neighboring Afghanistan at the top of their agenda after US-led foreign troops left the country.
The talks in the Caspian Sea town of Avaza on Friday come as the Taliban challenges Afghan government forces in several large cities after weeks of gains in the countryside, including in provinces next to the three former Soviet states that border the Afghanistan itself. The countries being Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov called Afghanistan “the question that worries all of us” on Wednesday as state television showed him receiving his Tajikistan counterpart Emomali Rahman for bilateral talks ahead of the summit.
Meanwhile, Russian and Uzbek forces have completed the Afghan phase of joint military exercises on time. Russia said the exercises would involve 1,500 troops. Both countries are worried that the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan could spread to Central Asia.
A senior Kremlin military official visited the region on Thursday to observe the exercises and hold talks. Fighting in Afghanistan’s long-running conflict escalated in May, when US and other foreign forces began withdrawing later this month.
In June, the Taliban seized Afghanistan’s main border crossing with Tajikistan’s Sher Khan Bandar, while fierce fighting with the group forced Kabul troops to retreat in both Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in recent weeks.
The Taliban in Afghanistan have insisted they have no designs for Central Asia, and has established official contacts with both Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
But analysts say the country’s growing security vacuum could pose a threat to Central Asia, as well as the region’s growing economic cooperation with Kabul.
Russian Army Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov arrived in Uzbekistan on Thursday for talks and observed military exercises ending next week.
During a meeting with his Uzbek counterpart, Shukhrat Khalkhukhamidov, Gerasimov said the exercises were “to take steps to address terrorist threats.”following the US troop withdrawal, which has been called “abrupt” by Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani.
The biggest threat to the Central Asian region today is from the Afghan side, Gerasimov said. The annual summit in Avaza is a rare example of a Central Asian state inviting talks without outside powers such as Russia, China or the United States.
Stay tuned to BaaghiTV for latest news and Updates!
China pledges 2 billion vaccines globally through year’s end
Alaska sightseeing plane crash kills six