Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 7 /Trend, V.Zhavoronkova/
It is high time for the Central Asian countries to determine foreign policy course, an expert on Central Asian region Alexander Knyazev believes.
"Time has come to dismiss from multi-vector policy and to make a choice of priorities for foreign course," Knyazev told Trend on Friday in a telephone conversation.
On Friday Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Russia expects US to cut down military presence in Central Asia after NATO finishes its anti-terrorism mission in Afghanistan.
Kyazev said that Ryabkov's statement expresses Russian interest in this region.
At the same time, several days ago, the U.S. expressed its intention to stay in the region even after 2014 year's withdrawal from Afghanistan.
This means that the rivalry between the major geopolitical players - Russia and U.S. for the domination in Central Asia increases.
Knyazev said that on this backdrop, Central Asian countries should dismiss from their usual multi-vector policy and finally make a choice either to the favor of Russia and China or to the U.S. and European Union.
"It is impossible to have two important rival geopolitical powers as partners at the same time," he added.
Knyazev said that it is up to each country of the region which direction to choose, but he expects them to prefer Russia and China as partners.