Azerbaijan, Baku, December 9 / Trend , V.Zhavoronkova /
Central Asian states that do not want to be integrated into and join various regional unions make a big mistake, said a European expert on the CIS countries Alexander Rahr.
"I believe that the states that do not want to be integrated make a big mistake, since it will be very difficult to survive alone in this world," the Director of the Russia-Eurasia Center of the Council on Foreign Relations of Germany Alexander Rahr Trend by telephone from Berlin.
Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Tajikistan Abutalip Ahmetov said on Tuesday that Tajikistan's joining the Customs Union, which will begin operating between Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus from January 1, 2010, is in the interest of both Union member countries and Tajikistan itself.
Official Dushanbe has not yet expressed its intention to join the organization. Unlike Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan also expressed its interest in joining the Union at the official level.
According to the German expert, associations such as the Customs Union are very important and useful.
"The countries around the world are trying to be integrated into some unions, no country can survive alone, said Rahr. - If Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan join the Customs Union, the products of these countries will have an access to Russia's market, and Russian capital will flow into these countries.
This is very important for both countries that need foreign capital, the expert said.
For already 20 years, opposite processes have been taking place in the former Soviet Union territory: the processes of reintegration and disintegration, Rahr said.
"There are states that are trying to be integrated into some new economic unions, since it is profitable for them, including Russia. Some of them are trying to escape from all the old and forget those that connected them formerly, and to be integrated into economic and political structures outside the post-Soviet space," said the expert.
According to Rahr, the main "integrator" is Russia, but we can not forget about Kazakhstan.
President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev is one of the "engines" of the integration policy in the post-Soviet space, the analyst believes.
"From Nazarbayev's point of view, the Central Asian states should be in union with Russia in order to benefit from cooperation with this country because of its closeness, said Rahr. - I think this is the reason for his joining the Customs Union."
According to the expert, formerly the idea of a new union beat in the form of a single economic space.
According to Rahr, there are only two states in Central Asia that opposed any kind of integration - Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
"Now the government of Turkmenistan is beginning to understand that they need integration, and they will try to obtain an access to West, China, Iran, and of course, they will continue to integrate with Russia," said the expert.
However, the expert said that Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are still at another phase of understanding of integration rather than Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, which have always been looking for the integration processes in CIS countries and did not oppose them.
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