U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a written statement on Thursday that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and India from Feb. 28 to March 3. According to the itinerary announcement issued by the United States, Blinken will participate in the ministerial meeting of the multilateral interaction mechanism between the five Central Asian countries and the United States, composed of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, on the 28th. During this period, Blinken will also meet with senior officials from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. After concluding these activities, Blinken will travel to the Indian capital New Delhi on March 1 to attend the G20 foreign ministers' meeting here.
February this year is 28 days, after reading the above itinerary, do we want to sigh that Blinken's itinerary is really full! Earlier, just after the Munich Security Conference, Blinken did not care about "resting", and prepared to come to Central and South Asia non-stop. Blinken's "busyness" actually shows from the side that Western hegemonic forces are increasing their containment of China and Russia. In recent years, through continuous layout, hegemonism and the chaebol forces behind it are always trying to put "dirty hands" into the backyard of China and Russia.
Before talking about the tripartite struggle between China, the United States and Russia, we must first understand Central Asia, a region that we are both familiar with and unfamiliar with. Why familiarity? In China's thousands of years of development history, our ancestors have had a far-reaching impact on Central Asia in the field of culture, economy and trade, and have played a positive role in promoting regional development, and the ancient Silk Road is a direct portrayal of China's friendship with Central Asian countries. It is strange because since modern times, as China has been opened by strong ships and guns, Central Asia has also become an important stage for world powers to compete for hegemony. Especially with the intensification of the US-Soviet hegemony, Central Asia has become a strategic bridgehead for hegemonic forces to try to penetrate China from the west.
Why Central Asia is the focus of global attention, in the view of aerospace jun, a very important factor is that its geographical location is too special. From the definition of the search software, Central Asia refers to the inland region of central Asia, and currently "Central Asia" refers to the "five Central Asian countries" in a narrow sense. As mentioned above, Central Asia has been a major transportation route since ancient times, and it is a necessary place for east-west exit and south-to-north, especially after the end of the Cold War, Central Asia has become an important strategic buffer zone. Because of the crucial geopolitical factors in Central Asia, at a time when the international situation is surging, Central Asia has become a "place where soldiers must fight".
Since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the global security situation has faced a major test, and the contradictions between the United States and Russia are particularly prominent in Eastern Europe, but even so, the United States and Russia have not given up the competition and wooing of the Central Asian region.
First of all, from the perspective of Russia, since Peter the Great of Russia, successive regimes and politicians have regarded opening up the strategic passage from Central Asia to the Indian Ocean as an important strategic task.
During the Brezhnev era, the Soviet Union launched one of its most daring direct military operations since the end of the Stalin era—the occupation of Afghanistan. The purpose of this move was to further control Central Asia, radiate to the surrounding areas, and give the Soviets more say in the world. The Soviets wanted to master the "global oil depot" through Central Asia and gain access to the Indian Ocean in order to control the "lifeblood" of global economy and trade. Although the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan ended in failure, it also proved the vital importance of Central Asia. Since then, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the five Central Asian countries have stepped onto the stage of history.
The collapse of the Soviet Union does not mean that Russians will abandon Central Asia, on the contrary, from the height of national security, Russia has paid more attention to the region and regarded Central Asia as its "basic plate". How much does Russia attach importance to Central Asia? To take one example, Russia has even acted with distrust of China's economic and trade cooperation in Central Asia. In 1997, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries planned to build a railway that would cross the territory of the three countries and lead directly to the Black Sea. However, Russia believes that this move may lead Russia to lose control of the economic lifeline of Central Asian countries, so it has been putting pressure on Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine, so that the railway can never be started. Russia's moves, we can clearly perceive, the spectre of great-power chauvinism, to a large extent, still has an impact on Russia. As with China, we can see that Russians have a deep obsession with influencing the political landscape in Central Asia.
In addition, we can see that after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, even though Russia is facing great pressure, it is still very concerned about various affairs in Central Asia. On June 28 last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin began his first trip abroad since the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, and Putin set his first stop in Turkmenistan, Central Asia. Before that, there was an "attempted coup" in Kazakhstan, when Kazakhstan asked the "Collective Security Treaty" for help, Russia immediately organized rapid reaction forces to rush into the capital of Kazakhstan to quell the riots and maintain order, and the Russian army's speed of action and high efficiency surprised the world. These details all show that Russia has a strong desire to control the countries of Central Asia.
After talking about Russia, let's look at the United States. For the United States, if it can form a rallying force in Central Asia, it can pose a threat to Russia in the north, influence China by moving east, further controlling India in the south, and pocketing the "global oil depot" when it goes west. Therefore, the Americans have long paid close attention to Central Asia, and Brzezinski, an expert on geopolitical issues, began to draw a blueprint for the Central Asian strategy of the Americans at the end of the last century.
Brzezinski emphasized that "the primary interest of the United States is to help ensure that no single power controls this geopolitical space alone," Brzezinski emphasized in Central Asia. Obviously, Brzezinski's "independent control by great powers" is alluding to China and Russia. In addition, Brzezinski also stressed that Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine should be listed as countries that must be most strongly supported by the United States, of which Uzbekistan, which is located in the center of Central Asia, is of the most strategic importance. Now we see that, as predicted by Brzezinski, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has been successfully detonated, and the United States has taken advantage of European interests. Then in the next step, the United States is bound to increase its efforts to plan for the layout in Central Asia.
In addition, we can find out through the "big events" in Central Asia, in July last year, Uzbekistan President Mirziyoyev signed a presidential decree declaring a state of emergency in the country's autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan. Subsequently, more detailed reports revealed that Ukraine had entered a state of emergency, and the media said that the Uzbek government planned to cancel Karakalpakstan's autonomous status, and then large-scale demonstrations broke out. Uzbekistan President Mirziyoyev said in a video conference that the demonstration was provoked and instigated by external malicious forces, who maliciously spread false news about Uzbekistan's official policies, misled the people and led to regional turmoil. We can focus on "provoking and instigating by external malicious forces." So who are the "external malicious forces"? The answer seems to be on the horizon.
In the critical period of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the high-speed period of China's external development, whoever most wants to make the "backyard" of China and Russia chaotic is the "external malicious force". The "goal" of external malicious forces to cause civil strife in Uzbekistan is actually very simple, that is, to undermine the national territorial integrity of Uzbekistan and create confrontation within Uzbekistan. At this point, we might recall what Brzezinski said: "The primary interest of the United States is to help ensure that no single power controls this geopolitical space alone." "Is it more meaningful. Before the outbreak of civil unrest in Uzbekistan, earlier in 2022, an "attempted coup" broke out in Kazakhstan, also located in Central Asia, and Kazakhstan has evidence that this "attempted coup" has the presence of Americans.
After talking about the United States and Russia, let's talk about China's relations with Central Asian countries. Perhaps in Chinese idiomatic terms, it is more appropriate to refer to Central Asia as "Western Regions". Thousands of years ago Chinese friendly exchanges with the peoples of Central Asia were carried out, and for thousands of years, Chinese exchanges with Central Asian countries have never been interrupted. It is precisely based on good historical factors that China's relations with the five Central Asian countries have been rising in recent years. As mentioned earlier, in 1997, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries planned to build a railway that crossed the territory of the three countries and led directly to the Black Sea. In fact, it is a substantial step that we want to take to further deepen economic and trade exchanges with Central Asian countries. Although this plan was met with resistance, we expressed to the Central Asian countries our willingness to cooperate. Then in 2001, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a permanent intergovernmental international organization comprising five Central Asian states, was established. Since the establishment of the organization, cooperation between China and the Central Asian region in various fields has been further developed.
Then, in 2009, then-President Nursultan Nazarbayev visited China, where he focused on deepening economic cooperation with China, especially in the energy sector. In this regard, some media once issued a report: "China-Kazakhstan oil cooperation, the future is bright." "Then the energy transportation pipeline between the two countries was completed, and natural gas from Central Asia continued to flow to Chinese mainland, of course, China naturally did not lose its friends, and we also brought investment to Central Asia." Our energy cooperation with countries in Central Asia has further ensured the continent's energy security.
At present, with the steady implementation of the mainland's Belt and Road Initiative, cooperation between China and Central Asia has ushered in a new period of historical opportunities. At present, we have cooperated with Central Asian countries in railways, roads, aviation, energy, electricity, information and other fields, and thus have given birth to new economic growth points. China's participation in the China-Kyrgyzstan-Ukraine International Highway, Waya Railway and Ampat Railway will help consolidate the integration of multimodal transport in Central Asia. The China-Kazakhstan crude oil pipeline and the China-Central Asia natural gas pipeline have ensured the security and development of suppliers, transit countries and consumer countries, and have become the "resource bloodline" of Eurasia. From this point of view alone, China's cooperation with the five Central Asian countries is bound to become closer in the future.
China, the United States and Russia all have their own strategic considerations for Central Asia, so for Central Asian countries, they also have different attitudes towards China, the United States and Russia. Especially after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the attitude of Central Asian countries towards the United States and Russia is undergoing a great change.
At the moment, the countries of Central Asia are in an awkward position on how to deal with relations with Russia and the United States.
On the one hand, the countries of Central Asia are generally neighbors of Russia, all CIS countries, and some are even members of the "Collective Security Organization", and their diplomatic relations with Russia are extremely sensitive; On the other hand, Central Asia and Russia have industrial overlap at the economic level, and their economies are mainly driven by docking with the West.
Therefore, Western attitudes have largely influenced the policy direction of Central Asian countries. After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Central Asian countries had to face the situation of "choosing one of the two" between Russia and the West. Taking Uzbekistan as an example, because it is deeply tied to the West, Uzbekistan decisively chose to follow the steps of the United States to criticize Russia after the United States demanded to condemn Russia. Therefore, we can see that the Central Asian region, which was originally regarded by Russia as a "rear" and "basic plate", is generally unwilling to support Russia on the topic of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
In addition, some experts believe that from a historical point of view, Russia, as a regional power, has been under the control of Russia for a long time in Central Asia, and now the five independent Central Asian countries are also worried that Russia will have territorial expansion ambitions for them in the future. The head of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Alexei Danilov, previously revealed to the media, he stressed that Ukraine's security services have obtained intelligence from Russia, and Russia is already preparing for a full-scale invasion of Kazakhstan. Although the Ukrainian side may have a ghost in mind, as the saying goes, there is no wind and no waves, and Russia's desire to control Central Asia is essentially there!
Not siding with Russia, but it does not mean that Central Asian countries will choose the United States without hesitation. As already emphasized, the U.S. strategy in Central Asia is "to ensure that no single major power can control the region alone." Therefore, under the premise that Russia's influence is still huge, the Americans have taken "troublemaking", "infiltration" and "sabotage" as necessary means. In this case, it is even less necessary for the Central Asian countries to choose the United States as a dependency.
The global situation is surging, and in the current environment, it is particularly important to find a reliable and unscrupulous cooperation between major countries. At present, the Central Asian countries are writing the correct answer, that is, to further deepen cooperation with China in various fields. In recent years, China's high-level officials have held many meetings with leaders of Central Asian countries, and the two sides have reached many heavyweight cooperation projects and consensus. According to the data, the bilateral trade volume between China and the five Central Asian countries will increase by about 40% year-on-year in 2022, and China has become one of the most important economic and trade partners of the five Central Asian countries.
In addition, what is even more valuable is that China has never pursued geopolitical interests in Central Asia, let alone engaged in hegemonism in the region, and of course we will never allow any extraterritorial forces to destabilize this key region. After all, behind Central Asia is ourselves. The current international environment is complex. The United States and Russia are actively wooing Central Asian countries, especially US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's upcoming visit to Central Asia, which is bound to cause uncertainty in the security situation in Central Asia. From our own perspective and from the overall situation of regional security and stability, we hope that Central Asian countries can maintain strategic concentration, eliminate interference, strengthen coordination with China, sincerely cooperate with China, work with China to maintain regional peace and stability, and push bilateral and multilateral cooperation to a new level.