Inside the EU’s New Power Play in Eurasia

Kaja Kallas’s late-March 2025 tour of Central Asia, in her role as the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, was a high-signal intervention in structural terms. It indicates a major re-evaluation of the EU’s posture toward a region historically treated as a far-flung, liminal borderland. As the inaugural EU–Central Asia Summit in Samarkand on April 3–4 approaches, her visible diplomatic activity was less about spectacle than about configuring a new field of co-adaptive engagement. Not only the European Union but also, separately, the United Kingdom are both seeking new regional footholds for building durable alignments. Central Asia, for decades considered through a lens of post-Soviet dependency or one of Chinese infrastructural absorption, is now increasingly recognized as a network node of emergent geopolitical agency. No longer just a space "between" other spaces, it is becoming a strategic space in its own right. Kallas’s mission and the UK’s parallel outreach signify a turn toward a negotiated interdependence that does not dissolve classical interest-based diplomacy but rather "complexifies" it by embedding it in a landscape of developmental trajectories and overlapping power centers. The arc of Kallas’s visit traced a deliberate sequence: Ashgabat, Tashkent, Almaty, Bishkek. In Ashgabat, she chaired the 20th EU–Central Asia Ministerial Meeting, a session nominally bureaucratic but substantively strategic. Discussions reaffirmed the 2023 EU–Central Asia Roadmap and activated the Global Gateway as an organizing frame for infrastructural, digital, and energy cooperation. Bilateral exchanges with officials in Turkmenistan brought the sensitive issue of sanctions circumvention into the open: Turkmenistan, though nominally neutral, remains enmeshed in logistics corridors proximate to Russian interest. From there, Kallas moved to Uzbekistan, where preparations for the April 3–4 Samarkand summit took clearer shape. Talks with President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Foreign Minister Bakhtiyor Saidov in Tashkent widened the terrain of diplomatic discourse to include the energy transition, educational exchange, and regional transport integration. By hosting summits and fostering cooperation, Uzbekistan is seeking to establish for itself a profile as a key facilitator in Eurasian affairs. In Kazakhstan, her final significant stop, the meetings with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Foreign Minister Murat Nurtleu emphasized macroeconomic diversification and critical raw material supply chains. These are areas in which the EU is not merely a partner but a principal stakeholder. And yet, it is not only the EU that has begun this strategic deepening. The United Kingdom, post-Brexit and still actively reconfiguring its global engagements, has moved in parallel. April 2025 marked the first anniversary of the UK–Kazakhstan Strategic Partnership and Cooperation Agreement. Foreign Office Minister Stephen Doughty’s recent hosting of the Kazakhstan–UK Strategic Dialogue marked 33 years of formal relations. These diplomatic celebrations, beyond their performativity, represent the UK’s recognition that Kazakhstan, and Central Asia more broadly, is a region where its strategic, commercial, and normative interests intersect. In this broader convergence, Kazakhstan plays a central structural role of a balancing nature. It shares long borders with both Russia and China; it hosts a significant Russian-speaking population; and it has maintained a political posture...

EU’s Kallas Tours Central Asia Ahead of Landmark Samarkand Summit

Last week, Kaja Kallas, the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, toured Central Asia in advance of the first-ever EU-Central Asia Summit. The notable meeting is set to take place in the ancient Uzbek city of Samarkand on April 3-4. EU-Central Asia Summit Samarkand, a city increasingly popular among international travelers, has hosted high-level gatherings before, including the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in September 2022. However, the upcoming summit marks the first time the top leadership of all five post-Soviet Central Asian republics will convene with the EU at this level. Key topics on the agenda include energy cooperation, trade corridors, and climate change. The summit is expected to produce several agreements that will outline the progress of EU-Central Asia relations and establish strategic policy directions for the future. Visit to Turkmenistan Kallas began her tour in Ashgabat, where she chaired the 20th EU-Central Asia Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. There, she addressed the implications of EU sanctions on Russia. “The European Union has enacted 16 sanctions packages and is currently preparing the 17th. I understand these measures impact the region’s economies, but Russian companies must not be allowed to use Central Asia to circumvent them,” Kallas warned. The meeting also focused on the EU-Central Asia roadmap adopted in Luxembourg in October 2023. Discussions centered on deepening trade, economic, and transport ties, along with expanding digital connectivity as part of the EU's Global Gateway initiative. Kallas also met with Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, praising Turkmenistan’s development and expressing appreciation for bilateral cooperation. Her remarks drew criticism from some observers. Belarusian political analyst Dzmitry Balkunets criticized Kallas on social media, accusing the EU of compromising its values by praising authoritarian regimes. Uzbekistan Visit In Tashkent, Kallas met with President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Discussions highlighted the upcoming Samarkand summit and stressed the importance of deepening EU-Uzbek cooperation in trade, logistics, digitalization, green energy, and infrastructure. Both sides also explored steps toward a new enhanced partnership agreement and Uzbekistan’s accession to the World Trade Organization. Visit to Kazakhstan Kallas concluded her tour in Astana, where she met with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on March 28. A statement from Tokayev’s office underlined Kazakhstan’s cautious diplomatic approach to global tensions. "President Tokayev emphasized the importance of restraint and responsibility in evaluating complex global developments. Kazakhstan remains committed to resolving international conflicts through diplomacy," the statement read. Analysts suggest Kallas may have encouraged Tokayev to distance Astana from both Moscow and Washington, as Brussels often diverges from Washington on issues like the war in Ukraine. However, Tokayev reiterated Kazakhstan’s multi-vector foreign policy, which avoids aligning with any single global power. In a notable development, Tokayev met with Uzbek President Mirziyoyev last weekend in Almaty. Though unannounced, the working visit suggests that the two leaders were coordinating positions ahead of the Samarkand summit. Whether their joint stance aligns with Brussels' expectations remains to be seen.