Unanswered money

Central Asia remains an active platform for covert wars of influence between the United States, Russia, China and the European Union. Moreover, the United States created the C5 + 1 format a few years ago, which we talked about earlier. However, 5 years later, this format turned out to be capable of only one thing – the opaque spending of American money by Washington’s partners in Central Asia.

Recall that the C5 + 1 format is a multilateral forum established in November 2015 in Samarkand by the foreign ministers of the five Central Asian countries and the United States with the aim of expanding intraregional cooperation and cooperation between Central Asia and the United States in three areas: economy and regional ties, surrounding environment and security. Thereafter, the ministers met for the second time in August 2016 in Washington and agreed to work on five joint projects in the aforementioned areas, thereby covering both high-political and low-political issues, and relying heavily on non-state actors as intermediaries. The proposed budget is $ 15 million allocated by Washington for the remainder of 2016.

Using the C5 + 1 format, Washington planned to increase its influence in the region, crowding out the interests of the European Union, Russia and China. According to political analysts, Moscow still rules, but not only the United States, but also China is trying to oust Russia from the region. However, if Washington is simply uncontrollably pouring days into the C5 + 1 countries, then China is increasing direct investment.

Returning to the American project C5 + 1, it should be noted that it was probably doomed from the very beginning. The fact is that the C5 + 1 format is completely one-sided and does not take into account political, economic and social factors that are significant for the countries of Central Asia. In addition, C5 + 1 lacks really working and efficient mechanisms for solving urgent problems in the region. All that now works within the format is American subsidies in dollars, which do not need to be reported to recipients. It turns out that Washington is financing the bubble, while the Asian countries pretend to be working within the format and nothing more.

The C5 + 1 collaboration format will exist, but the results will remain the same. This assumption was expressed by former adviser to US President George W. Bush for Russia and Eurasia, director of Kissinger Associates Thomas Graham.

The United States has another problem in Central Asia that challenges the future of C5 + 1. The fact is that the strategy for an inter-Afghan settlement announced by US President Donald Trump has not been implemented – neither the United States nor the Afghan government. who cannot come to an agreement with the Taliban. In the current conditions, only Russia and partly Uzbekistan are taking effective measures aimed at encouraging the parties to the conflict to direct negotiations. Washington’s desire to include the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in C5 + 1 is leading to a dead end and will not solve the problem of an inter-Afghan settlement.

Mikhal Berg