By Tamim Asey
Afghan forces are fighting Central Asian extremists. Time for the region to get more involved.
The spillover effects of the NATO forces withdrawal from Afghanistan already has the Central Asian States of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan worried. Today, Afghan National Security Forces are fighting Chechen, Uzbek, Tajik and Kyrgyz extremists in its northern provinces, paying a heavy price in blood and treasure with very little acknowledgement from its Central Asian neighbors. Poor cross border security coordination and intelligence sharing mechanisms, a regional trust deficit, coupled with organized crime and drug trafficking have only exacerbated this problem.
Ties between Afghanistan and Central Asia are driven more by security imperatives than by trade and energy. Afghanistan and Central Asia share geographic, demographic, security and economic ties that go back to the ancient Silk Road days. With the disintegration of the former Soviet Union and the emergence of newly independent Central Asian states, Afghanistan began an era of tumultuous relations with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Following the 2001 NATO/U.S. intervention in Afghanistan, bilateral relations changed and a new dynamic emerged.
Many in Central Asia quietly welcomed the arrival of NATO forces at their gates as an alternative to Russia and China. They even benefited from billions of dollars in security, economic and trade deals to supply equipment and facilitate trade and supply routes to ISAF/NATO forces in the country. In the wake of the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan security ties weakened, trade and supply deals dried up, and extremism began to rise. Today more than ever Central Asian is in danger of outbreaks of extremism. Draconian policies adopted to suppress it have had the opposite effect.
Read the full story at The Diplomat