TURKEY’S STRATEGY IN RUSSIA, CENTRAL ASIA AND CHINA TODAY AND TOMORROW

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 035-047
Author(s):  
Marat Shaikhutdinov

The Republic of Turkey has entered what may be the most complicated period in its modern history; its ambitions are on the rise; its final aim to become one of the pillars of the world order is a challenging one. The paper analyzes the present and future of Turkish policy towards the Russian Federation, Central Asia and the People’s Republic of China. Turkey’s relations with Russia can be described as mutually beneficial cooperation in many spheres. The sides demonstrate their skills when compromises are required in complex situations or even conflicts. They are invariably found despite the sides’ diverging interests in the Middle East, the Southern Caucasus and Central Asia. Special attention is heeded to the mid-term prospects of cooperation between Turkey and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) up to Turkey’s possible membership. In Central Asia, Turkey’s strategy relies on essential mechanisms of Turkic integration realized by many means, including the Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking States (the Turkic Council), and on the specifics of Turkey’s relationships with each of the five Central Asian states. It seems that trade, economic and investment cooperation between Turkey and the Central Asian states are treated as priorities along with the expected emergence of the Turkic World in the mid-term. In this context, convergence of interests of the Turkic and Eurasian integration is especially important. As could be expected, the paper pays a lot of attention to the Chinese policy towards Turkey and connectivity between the Turkish Middle Corridor and the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative. While the contradictions between Turkey and its Western neighbors are growing increasingly vehement, Ankara and Beijing are consolidating their economic, energy, transport and logistic cooperation. At the same time, we should bear in mind that the so-called Uyghur issue is in the way of the otherwise smooth process of rapprochement. Keywords: Republic of Turkey, Russian Federation, EAEU, China, Belt and Road Initiative, Kazakhstan, Middle East, Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking States.

Author(s):  
Fabio Indeo

The main aim of this article is to evaluate the impact of the China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and of Uzbekistan's proactive regional policy to promote regional interconnectivity and to develop an “endogenous” cooperation mainly focused on the strategic interests of Central Asian countries. Within the BRI, Central Asia holds a strategic relevance, because this region is crossed by two of the six main BRI corridor projects – the China-Central Asia-West Asia Economic Corridor and the Eurasian land bridge – which will contribute to improve regional cooperation and connections among these countries. For Central Asian republics, BRI represents an attractive project benefiting of Chinese huge investments aimed to boost infrastructures and to develop national economies. Under Mirziyoyev's leadership, Uzbekistan has undertaken a proactive and constructive regional diplomacy in Central Asia, based on the improvement of relations and cooperation with other Central Asian republics, which has become a key priority of Tashkent's foreign policy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Prof. Dr. Muhammad Ahmed Qadri , Sundus Qureshi

The New Silk Road (NSR), one of China's most ambitious economic plans, was unveiled by President Xi Jinping in 2013 and is intended to act as the Central Asian component of the Eurasian Belt and Road Initiative (Belt Road) (BRI). By enhancing and expanding China's security arc westward, as well as developing them as a transportation corridor connecting China to Europe, Beijing is able to consolidate its current economic investments while also launching new projects in Central Asia and South Asia, as well as attracting new investment from other countries. The NSR, touted by China as simply a development project, is loaded with wide-ranging security implications. China's infrastructure security and investment concerns in Central Asia are examined in this research, which examines the interplay between these two issues. China's non-state retaliation (NSR) in Central Asia is investigated in three ways: With its securitization push, the Silk Road Initiative not only consolidates the power of the Central Asian regimes; it also grants China an important position managing safeguards; and it allows the ultra-rich to move between the lure of Chinese investments and the appeasement of popular fears about China's growing influence. According to this report, NSR aid and investment from China has received an overall favourable reaction in the area, with some countries concerned about the consequences of the project on their sovereignty and security, as well as the promise of connection and prosperity (a "win-win" situation). A look at China's growing security and economic commitment in Central Asia and the tight Sino-Russian friendship, as well as the areas of collaboration and complementarity between the two countries, is included in the article's concluding paragraphs.


Subject Central Asian gains and risk from the Belt and Road Initiative Significance Central Asian states are a crucial part of the overland component of the Belt and Road Initiative that China is advancing to promote regional security as well as trade. They stand to gain from improved connectivity, but project funding largely consists of Chinese loans that they will have to repay, possibly before the economic benefits are apparent. Impacts Uzbekistan will assume an increasing role as a trade and energy hub. Changed atmospherics will allow Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to work together as the principal regional states. China will be sensitive to fears of 'colonialisation', hiring local workers and stressing the value of its production projects.


Subject Improvements in Kazakh-Uzbek relations. Significance Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are the key Central Asian states and the dynamics of their relationship have implications for all their neighbours. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev's visit to Tashkent on September 16 was hailed as the start of a new era in a sometimes troubled relationship. The change in mood was initiated by Shavqat Mirzioyev, Uzbekistan's president since December 2016. Impacts Uzbekistan is unlikely to reverse its stance on the Eurasian Economic Union, which it is reluctant to join. Kazakh-Uzbek cooperation is likely to include counter-terrorism and other security measures. A better bilateral relationship will facilitate China's Belt and Road initiative in Central Asia.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 022-028
Author(s):  
Julia Harlamova

The article discusses China’s geo-economic presence in the Central Asian region and analyzes the history and causes of this phenomenon in the form of a detailed discussion of the interaction between China and the Central Asian countries in the energy and transportation spheres. It notes the special role of Kazakhstan in the realization of Belt and Road Initiative and pays particular attention to certain aspects of China’s crediting and investment policy.


Subject Prospects Belt and Road in Central Asia. Significance The Central Asian states are the focus of investment associated with the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB), the westward overland part of Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The SREB offers them a unique chance to become central transport hubs rather than peripheral, landlocked territories but they are also seeking to build productive and export capacity through Chinese investment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 119 (819) ◽  
pp. 264-269
Author(s):  
Catherine Owen

This essay considers the nature of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Central Asia. Rather than a “grand strategy” coordinated by Beijing, it is better seen as a decentered, contradictory network of transnational clientelist relationships and semiautonomous profit-seeking institutions. While building much-needed infrastructure, these projects serve to enrich local political elites while fueling resentment and suspicion among their populations. Evidence for this argument is presented from three spheres: the principal implementers of the BRI, the main projects that have been enacted under its auspices in Central Asia, and examples of how these projects have been marred by elite corruption and local protest.


Author(s):  
K. Maigeldinov ◽  
◽  
E. L. Nechayeva ◽  
M.K. Dyussembekova ◽  

The article presents the factors of influence of coronavirus on the «Belt and road» initiative and economic consequences for the participating countries from Central Asia. Systematic, comparative method and scenario method were selected as research methods. The coronavirus epidemic and the impending economic crisis will affect relations between Central Asian countries. They will not have a completely new reality, but existing trends will accelerate dramatically. In this situation, the economy and technological development of the Central Asian countries will become increasingly dependent on China, which will also affect other areas of cooperation. The article points out problematic issues in the further development of economic corridors, as well as the positive and negative consequences of the pandemic, the reasons for revising the pace and scale of infrastructure projects. Perspective directions of further development of this initiative in political and economic aspects are considered. The coronavirus and its consequences are likely to force the Central Asian countries and China to move closer together much more rapidly. The research objectives are to investigate how the crisis of the coronavirus affects the economy of China and its part, related to the initiative; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Central Asia, its economic, social and political situation; as well as how in recent times the policy of China in the region has changed. But despite some negative consequences, in the short term, Central Asian countries have no choice but to become even closer to China.


Author(s):  
Linda Yueh

China’s emergence as the world’s second-largest economy has transformed the world economy by creating a source of consumers as well as a place for production. As is consistent with becoming a major economy, China has become a net capital exporter, investing more abroad than it receives in inward foreign direct investment. The clearest manifestation of this outward investment is seen in the ‘Going Global’ policy for Chinese firms launched in the early 2000s and in the Belt and Road Initiative that began to invest in infrastructure overseas in 2013. The latter has significant implications for Africa as well as the Middle East, eastern parts of Europe, and South-east and Central Asia. This chapter explores the drivers of China’s emergence as an economic superpower and analyzes its wider potential impact, including on sub-Saharan Africa’s economic development, notably in respect of Chinese infrastructure investment in Kenya.


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