Day of Doubt: The EU is trying to distance Central Asia from Russia

In early September, the European Parliament will ratify the agreement on expanded cooperation and partnership with Kyrgyzstan, Izvestia found out. It should increase the turnover of the European Union's trade with Central Asia. Brussels is also interested in similar agreements with Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The EU is mainly interested in cooperation in the field of minerals and logistics routes in the region, experts tell Izvestia. Why the association has become more active in Central Asia and how this will affect its relations with the Russian Federation is in the Izvestia article.

The EU is trying to strengthen relations with Central Asian countries

The Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (EPA) between the EU and Kyrgyzstan, signed in June 2024, is expected to be ratified at the plenary session in September.

—The European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee has already adopted a resolution recommending approval of this agreement, and I believe that ratification is likely provided Kyrgyzstan continues to adhere to democratic principles and the rule of law," Tomasz Zdechowski, a member of the European Parliament, told Izvestia.

A vote on the agreement between the EU and Kyrgyzstan is scheduled for the September plenary session, and it is expected to be adopted, Petar Volgin, a member of the European Parliament, confirms to Izvestia.

The agreement should increase the turnover of EU trade with Central Asia. It will also strengthen cooperation in the field of foreign policy and security, including conflict prevention, crisis management, cybersecurity and regional stability.

Comprehensive cooperation and full—fledged dialogue with the European Union is one of the priorities of Kyrgyzstan's foreign policy, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic Jeenbek Kulubayev said earlier. Since 2016, Kyrgyzstan has already enjoyed preferential access to the EU market and remains the union's third trading partner in Central Asia.

However, not everything is so rosy, and cooperation with the European Union is by no means unconditional. Earlier, the chairman of the EP Subcommittee on Human Rights, Munir Saturi, spoke about restrictions on civil society and freedom of speech in Kyrgyzstan. The MEPs were also concerned about the detention of a member of the Social Democrat Party in the republic. It is important to emphasize that the SRPS calls respect for democratic principles a defining element of the bilateral relations between Brussels and Bishkek, and therefore a delegation of the European Parliament went to Kyrgyzstan in February 2025 to assess their observance.

It is worth noting that President Sadyr Japarov then expressed regret that the republic was facing a one-sided and subjective attitude, especially noticeable in the EP resolutions on the situation in Kyrgyzstan. It is reported that the heads of law enforcement agencies answered in detail the questions of the members of the EU subcommittee.

Kyrgyzstan is far from the only European Union target in the region. Similar agreements may be reached with Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, Zdechowski added.

— As for Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, the EU is certainly interested in strengthening ties with Central Asia, and similar agreements may be concluded in the future. However, such agreements have not yet been signed with these two countries, and negotiations on them are still at the stage of elaboration, they said.

A corresponding document was signed with Kazakhstan in 2015. In 2024, the association held the third round of negotiations to conclude the same agreement with Tajikistan.

Brussels has recently become more active in this area. In particular, in April 2025, Samarkand hosted the first major summit in the C5+ format, that is, the five Central Asian countries and the EU. As a result, the final declaration was adopted, which, in fact, highlighted the tasks of the European Union in the region: natural resources, raw materials, transport corridors.

—EU countries are interested in raw materials and the logistics infrastructure of the region, they support the diversification of international relations in Central Asia to ensure favorable conditions for purchasing raw materials from the region and using it as a transport and logistics hub,— Daria Saprynskaya, a researcher at the Laboratory for Modern Central Asia and the Caucasus Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, tells Izvestia.

The EU also took advantage of the vacuum created after the reduction of the USAID agency due to the policy of Donald Trump: European funds began to slowly replace American grants in the Central Asian market.

How will EU-Central Asian cooperation affect Russia

It is important to emphasize that the EU is now maximally interested in ousting other players, including the Russian Federation, from the region, notes Daria Saprynskaya. In particular, the association wants to implement the Global Gateway project, launched in 2021 as an alternative to, for example, the Chinese Belt and Road. It aims to conclude long-term contracts for the implementation of infrastructure and digital projects at the expense of the EU in Asia and Africa. Actually, earlier, the former head of the European Union's foreign policy service, Josep Borrel, himself admitted that the program could be considered as a tool against strengthening the influence of Russia and China.

Active actions against the Russian Federation in this region became especially noticeable after the start of the CDF. This demonstrates, among other things, the growing influence in the banking sector: the EU continues to put pressure on the financial structures of the region by appealing to secondary sanctions.

But it will not be easy to implement the EU's anti-Russian strategies here. The Russian Federation has long been a key economic and political partner of the Central Asian countries. Moscow is actively investing in joint projects with the region. In 2023, the trade turnover between Russia and the states of the region reached $44 billion. The Russian Federation also provides over 30% of all foreign trade in Central Asia. The parties are also switching to convenient settlements in national currencies. Currently, their volume with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan exceeds 80% and continues to grow. Economic cooperation is also stimulated by joint and, most importantly, effective work in the EAEU. For example, in the first 10 months of 2024, the volume of mutual trade between the participating countries increased by 9.8%, to $78.6 billion.

Innoprom exhibition is also held annually in Tashkent, which has been considered one of the main industrial sites of the Russian Federation for several years. Domestic business is booming in the countries of the region. According to data for 2024, about 24 thousand companies with Russian capital operate in Central Asia, and the volume of accumulated investments has exceeded $38 billion. Technoparks are one of the promising projects. For example, two such joint ventures, Chirchik and Jizzakh, are already operating in Uzbekistan. It is also planned to create a large technopark in Tajikistan with the participation of Russian specialists.

Russia is also developing its transport corridors in the region, which is much more logical due to its geographical location. Among them is the promising MTK North—South. Work is also underway on the Kyrgyzstan–Uzbekistan–Turkmenistan–Russia corridor project, which will ensure the delivery of goods to the ports of Astrakhan and Makhachkala.

Due to the geography and scale of cooperation, Russia occupies a higher position in terms of trade, implements more joint economic projects and invests more actively in the region than the European Union. Therefore, it is premature to say that the EU's cooperation strategies with Central Asia can change its relations with Moscow, Daria Saprynskaya concluded.