Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 3 / Trend , V.Zhavoronkova/
Kyrgyzstan's looking for as much financial and military support as possible causes the real danger for Central Asian stability, European Expert on the region, Beate Eschment wrote to Trend in an email.
"Kyrgyzstan is looking for as much financial and military support as possible, which in turn makes Uzbekistan nervous," Eschment told Trend . "In this lies the real danger for Central Asian stability."
The countries of Central Asia have been failing to resolve the region's water and electricity problems for many years. Before flowing into Uzbekistan, the rivers run through Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, where they are losing much of their water. The two countries intend to build hydropower plants (HPP) on the rivers which may further limit the flow of water in Uzbekistan. Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan need to build power plant due to acute shortage of electricity and the lack of sufficient fuel to generate energy using alternative methods. This causes a long-standing disputes and disagreements.
Recently, relations between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan have exacerbated following Kyrgyzstan's decision to deploy the second military base of Russia in its territory. The memorandum was signed about the outcome of the CSTO informal summit in early August.
"The Uzbek-Kyrgyz relations are quite tense at the moment due to the Kyrgyz government's recent agreement with Moscow to allow the establishment of a second Russian military base on its territory, which will be built in the Ferghana Valley near the Uzbek border," said Eschment, the expert of the Germany Association for Eastern European Studies.
She believes Uzbekistan is very sensitive when it comes to the engagement of foreign powers in Central Asia overall.
The worsening of the Uzbek-CSTO relations is due to the same reasons, but they are not really connected, Eschment believes.
The expert said there are a growing number of potentially explosive issues between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, border and water issues for example, but Uzbekistan clearly has the upper hand.
Compared to Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan's population is more and its economic power and military potential are far more substantial, Eschment said.
Therefore, she believes, Kyrgyzstan is looking for as much financial and military support as possible, which in turn makes Uzbekistan nervous and threatens violation of stability in Central Asia.
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