Kazakhstan’s Sovereign Identity: A Push for Regionalism and Investment
Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev made a powerful statement when, during a November 9 briefing in the Kazakh capital, he addressed the visiting Russian president in his native tongue. Tokayev’s brief address in Kazakh was a reminder that Kazakhstan is a sovereign nation, separate from Russia, and that the country is determined to establish its own identity apart from Moscow.
This determination is reflected in the efforts of Central Asian leaders, such as Uzbekistan’s Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who have been traveling the world, signing major investment deals and hosting international summits at home, promoting their development agendas and visions for the region.
However, many in the West have been slow to acknowledge the trend, including major news publications such as Reuters, Deutsche Welle, The Wall Street Journal and Time, all of which have recently referred to Central Asia as “Russia’s backyard.” This phrase is seen by Central Asian and some Western researchers as evidence of a colonial and condescending way of understanding a region that has its own history, culture and trajectory.
Eric Rudenshiold, former National Security Council director for Central Asia under the Biden and Trump administrations, said in a recent Washington roundtable, “Central Asia is not a flyover zone. It is a destination.” Rudenshiold is now a senior fellow at the Caspian Policy Center in Washington.
Central Asia wants ‘strong commitment’
Speaking remotely from Tashkent on the same panel discussion, Uzbek scholar Akram Umarov argued that countries seeking to boost relations with Central Asia need to appreciate that emerging identity.
“Central Asia is focused on its own development,” he said. “It wants a strong commitment and longstanding interest from its partners, including the United States.”
Part of that identity is forged by Central Asia’s location in a “tough neighborhood” — landlocked and surrounded by Russia, China, Iran and Afghanistan — while standing at the crossroads between eastern and western Asia.
Kazakhstan, one of the world’s top 12 oil producers, “does not just want an energy-oriented cooperation. It wants to become a knowledge-based economy,” said Iskander Akylbayev, a Kazakh colleague of Umarov. Akylbayev stressed the importance of regional connectivity, which could lure more investment to Central Asia and boost its image.
Openings for the U.S.
Rudenshiold sees the five Central Asian states “working together and breaking free from their former isolation to connect to a more global future — a process that has created significant new openings for the United States.”
China, the Gulf states and the EU are promising to invest billions that Central Asians hope will free them from “Russia’s stranglehold.” America’s pledge pales by comparison, Rudenshiold noted in his recent article for the Caspian Policy Center.
Kazakhstan is eager to develop a “Middle Corridor” through which East Asian goods can be transported to the West via its territory, the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus. Double-landlocked Uzbekistan is desperate to access seaports. Turkmenistan wants a trans-Caspian gas pipeline to facilitate the sale of its main resource.
“Washington is missing out on a critical opportunity to assist the region,” Rudenshiold said. “U.S. diplomats and development experts are sending the right messages to Central Asian capitals, but they don’t have sufficient resources to follow up.”
Rising regionalism
Edward Lemon, president of the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs and professor at Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government and Public Service, said, “the most significant change in foreign relations in Central Asia over the past decade has been rising regionalism.”
“Visa regimes have been relaxed, borders reopened, trade surged and intraregional migration has increased,” Lemon told VOA.
However, he says, Central Asian leaders still do not act as a cohesive group. “Doing so would certainly increase their bargaining power.”
Lemon added that while striving to overcome the label of “Russia’s backyard,” “all have maintained strong ties with Moscow, which have not substantially changed since the full-
