Heather Murdock VOA News August 31, 2021 VAN, TURKEY / TURKISH BORDER WITH IRAN – Under a small bridge more than 100 kilometers from the Turkish border with Iran, a small group of boys and young men waits quietly for a smuggler. They are unwashed, exhausted and hungry. Most of them are under 18, and
Bruce Pannier Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty August 18, 2021 The events that the governments of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan have been increasingly dreading in recent weeks have begun to happen. The Afghan government has fallen to the Taliban and despite the Central Asian governments having had years to contemplate and plan for such an occurrence,
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty August 17, 2021 India has become the latest major country to evacuate its embassy in Kabul, leaving only a handful of embassies from global and regional powers operating in the Afghan capital as the top U.S. diplomat in Kabul dismissed reports that he had left the country. The Russian, Chinese, and
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi August 14, 2021 Taliban fighters have reportedly taken control of Mazar-e Sharif, a major northern Afghan city that is one of the last in the country still under government control. The August 14 capture of the city, located around 100 kilometers from the border with Uzbekistan, was a major setback for the
RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi August 11, 2021 Russia completed joint military exercises with troops from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan on August 10 as the Taliban gain control of much of northern Afghanistan bordering Moscow’s Central Asian allies. The war games began last week, involving about 2,500 Russian, Tajik, and Uzbek troops at a training ground in Tajikistan
Navbahor Imamova VOA News July 13, 2021 WASHINGTON – Uzbekistan’s goal of securing new trade routes to the Indian Ocean — the focus of a conference this week featuring many of the region’s top diplomats — has been complicated by rising uncertainty about the future of a major country along the way: Afghanistan. The goal
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
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