17.03.08
Central Asia: A Testing Ground for New Great-Power Relations
Oslo, NUPI | 56 pages
The report analyses the emerging strategic convergence between China and Russia in security and economic questions and argues that this has supplanted US influence in Central Asia.
>> Summary
The report argues that the strategic cooperation against terrorism between the USA and Russia following 9/11 has gradually been replaced by a strategic convergence between China and Russia around security and economic priorities in Central Asia. This convergence is visible in an institutionalised cooperation between China and Russia in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which also faciliates cooperation between these powers and the Central Asian states. The authors question the viability of this new ’multilateralism’, however. Both China and Russia have economic and security interests in the regions, and although their joining hands might challenge US interests, their capacity for shared sovereignty is low. Russia focuses primarily on regaining security influence, while Chinese economic and energy interests are not compatible with Russia’s.
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