By Casey Michel
For all the questions about the SCO’s purpose, it has brought at least one unlikely pair together.
For all the fraught relations within Central Asia, there are perhaps none frostier than that between Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov and Tajikistan President Emomali Rakhmon. The rancor, it would seem, is as much geopolitical as it is personal. Not only does Uzbekistan remain vociferously opposed to Tajikistan’s planned Rogun Dam – which would both stand as the world’s tallest and allow Tajikistan further leverage over Uzbekistan’s hydro resources – but, just a few years ago, Karimov and Rakhmon apparently got into something of a brawl after a testy exchange. (According to reports, Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev managed to wrest the two from one another.) Toss in a mined border, undelimited stretches between the two countries, and a Russian military backing Dushanbe, and you’ll understand why relations between the two have been strained further than others within the region.
Thus, when Karimov announced he would be heading to Dushanbe last month, heads turned. Rather than spearheading an infrastructural project or announcing some kind of economic investment, Karimov landed in Dushanbe at the behest of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Alongside heads of state from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, and Russia, Karimov and Rakhmon found themselves at the same table for the first time since 2008. Much of the spotlight stood with discussions between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, and all the more after further American and European Union sanctions came against Moscow. Yet the meeting between Karimov and Rakhmon, for those watching the region, stood just as interesting. Not necessarily for any agreements that could potentially come – there was little likelihood Tajikistan would budge from its push for Rogun, or that Uzbekistan would move from its opposition – but for the mere fact that it’s taken place.
Read the full story at The Diplomat