RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service July 11, 2021 Turkmenistan has begun moving heavy weaponry, helicopters, and other aircraft closer to its border with Afghanistan, and reservists are being put on alert in the capital, a further sign of the worry spreading across Central Asia as Taliban fighters continue major offensives. A senior official at a Turkmen security
Jeff Seldin VOA News July 9, 2021 WASHINGTON – With U.S. and coalition combat troops all but gone from Afghanistan, Western officials are preparing to face down terrorist threats with the promise of “over-the-horizon” capabilities that may be ill-suited to the danger that groups such as al-Qaida and Islamic State currently pose. U.S. officials, both
By Radio Azadi July 9, 2021 Taliban representatives visited Moscow on July 8 seeking to provide assurances that recent gains across Afghanistan do not pose a threat to Russia or Central Asian states. Taliban fighters have captured large swaths of territory in northern Afghanistan as government forces collapse with the U.S. troop exit from the country.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty July 2, 2021 U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with the top diplomats of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan on July 1, with Afghanistan high on the agenda as U.S. forces prepare to exit the war-torn country and Washington seeks Central Asian partners. The meetings in Washington come as the Taliban has
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty June 25, 2021 By Bruce Pannier For any Central Asia governments that thought they had time to consider their policies toward Afghanistan while the last foreign troops are withdrawing from the country, the clock already seems to have run out. Few could have foreseen the rapid advances Taliban fighters have made in
Tolo News: Afghanistan’s U-20 (under 20) national football team on Wednesday left Kabul for Dushanbe, Tajikistan, for the CAFA Junior Championship, an international football competition in Central Asia. Afghans will face Uzbekistan in their first match of the competition on Friday. The tournament started in Dushanbe on June 9 and will end on June 18.
Tolo News: Currently, there are around 36,000 religious seminaries in Pakistan functioning as factories to produce Taliban. It is a big and thriving industry, patronized by the military and run by the religious elites with huge investments from the Middle East. A good number of students here are still Afghans who have been used (and
Frud Bezhan Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty May 26, 2021 Pakistan and Uzbekistan have exchanged goods through war-torn Afghanistan for the first time, in a move hailed as a milestone for regional economic integration. A Pakistani cargo truck on May 4 transported medicine from the port city of Karachi to the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, via Kabul. An Uzbek
Bruce Pannier Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty April 24, 2021 Some recent media reports suggest the U.S. military will seek to reposition some of its troops in Central Asia after its big decision to withdraw from Afghanistan after nearly two decades in the country. The New York Times reported on April 15 that U.S. officials had been
Ayesha Tanzeem VOA News March 29, 2021 ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN – A regional ministerial conference called the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process (HoA-IP) started Monday in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe to try to advance the goal of ending the decades long conflict in Afghanistan. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who arrived early Monday to attend the annual conference, also