Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili
Once dismissed as a remote frontier, Central Asia has emerged as the beating heart of Eurasia.
When the presidents of Central Asia descend on Washington this week for the C5+1 Summit, the United States has two goals in mind. First, it wants deals: access to rare earths and other critical minerals that China dominates and trade routes that bypass Russia. It also wants Central Asian countries to work more closely as a bloc. Washington sees regional integration as key to helping these states resist domination by Moscow and Beijing while opening space for American engagement.
Once dismissed as a remote frontier, Central Asia has emerged as the beating heart of Eurasia. Regional cooperation has changed the game, transforming these landlocked states from bystanders in great-power politics into the engine driving a new continental order.
What’s Changed?
Washington is no longer lecturing Central Asia about democracy and human rights. The Trump administration has made clear that economic partnership and strategic cooperation matter most. For Central Asian governments—still authoritarian but increasingly attuned to public pressure for jobs and rising living standards—this shift is welcome.
To be fair, Washington long gave lip service to democracy while prioritizing security. After September 11, 2001, the United States overlooked severe rights abuses to access airbases during the war in Afghanistan. The transactional nature of the relationship is now explicit. Central Asian leaders want partners who can compete with Beijing and Moscow on infrastructure.
This new realism mirrors trends elsewhere. What is taking shape in Central Asia is, in many ways, the region’s equivalent of the Abraham Accords: a web of pragmatic partnerships built on shared interests, not ideology. In the Middle East, those accords aimed to contain Iran. In Central Asia, similar dynamics are at play as states seek balance against Russia, China, and Iran.
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