Valdai Club

A lot depends on how clearly peaceful interaction in Central Asia and around it will be re-established, in a way that’s acceptable for all parties, writes Yuri Vasilyev, Special correspondent for the Vzglyad business newspaper. There is one of the main questions for Uzbekistan as one of the main partners of Russia in the region: will the systemic reforms in the country allow it to overcome the dependence of its citizens on systems that facilitate fast payments from abroad?

The value of any potential deal with the Taliban is apparently not entirely clear to Russia, China or any of the Central Asian countries. As a rule, they combine active diplomacy towards Afghanistan with active military preparations, writes Valdai Club expert Vasily Kashin.

Historically, transport links have played the most important role in consolidating geopolitical spaces, nation states, and groups of states. The oldest examples of statehood arose along rivers, so rivers almost never served as natural boundaries. As humankind evolved, it enhanced the natural capabilities for interconnection between regions by building roads, and in the 19th century, rail, and then air services in the 20th century.

The global role of the West has drastically changed. From world leadership and world domination (regardless of the moral or political assessment of this), the West has moved, at best, to active defence, to defend what it considers to be its own, writes Valdai Club Chairman Andrey Bystritskiy.