Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 24
By Kamila Aliyeva – Trend:
The Central Asian states are putting aside longstanding differences for several reasons, Kenneth Katzman, a senior analyst at the Congressional Research Service, told Trend commenting on the rapprochement of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
“The regional countries want to be more unified. Economically, the Central Asian states want to integrate further to be more attractive to China’s investments in the region as part of the One Belt-One Road initiative of the Chinese leadership,” he said.
The Central Asian states also want to cooperate more to combat the growing domestic threat from citizens who have been recruited to join the “Islamic State” terrorist organization, according to Katzman.
Currently, Uzbekistan is buying electricity from Kyrgyzstan. Meanwhile, according to statistical data, trade relations between the two countries have significantly improved. Trade turnover between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan increased by 1.5 times in 1H17 compared to the same period of 2016.