China’s Relations With Central Asian Countries

The transformation of the Central Asian states after the collapse of the Soviet Union into independent players of international relations has increased the interest of researchers in matters of foreign policy and relations with foreign countries. It must be admitted that at present, China’s relations with the countries of Central Asia are on the rise. Volumes of export-import operations from year to year increase. China is becoming a leading partner of the Central Asian states, and not only in the trade and energy sphere, but also in the field of geopolitics and regional security.This paper aims to identify China’s interests and priorities in Central Asian Region; research the security cooperation within Shanghai Cooperation Organization, trade cooperation and energy cooperation; point out problems fields and draw conclusions about possible future. Although the prospects of bilateral relations and multilateral cooperation have been evaluated solely in a positive way by the leaders of China and the Central Asian states, the problem field in China’s relations with the countries of Central Asia is quite extensive. Thus, for example, are problems of Islam radicalization and terrorism in Central Asia, weakness of regional security systems, possible destabilization of CAR, uncertainties about further development of SCO and its interaction with other security structures in the region. Among trade cooperation problems are, for instance, geo-economic isolation, lack of economic integration and mainly raw material orientation of CAR economies, as well as asymmetry of economies of CAR and China. Finally, although energy cooperation has resulted in reciprocal wins, there are such problems as, for example, lack of CA strategic management of resources, lack of high-tech projects, state orientation of CA energy sector which greatly politicizes the nature of relations in the energy sphere, competition between the countries of the region and Russia for the sale of its energy resources to China, and etc.