Samarkand Summit: Why Has European Interest in Central Asia Increased?

The Uzbek city of Samarkand hosted the first summit of its kind between the Central Asian region and the European Union on April 3-4, 2025, with the participation of leaders from the five countries of the region: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, along with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. The summit aimed to strengthen relations between the two sides amid rising competition among various international and regional powers for dominance and influence in Central Asia, primarily from Russia and China, in light of the region’s significant geopolitical importance and its vast natural and mineral resources, particularly rare earth metals.

International and Regional Contexts:

The Central Asia-EU summit in Samarkand was held against a backdrop of several international and regional developments, including:

Central Asia’s Move Towards Broader Global Partnerships: Recently, Central Asian countries have been expanding their interactions with external actors to ensure their political, economic, and military security. These states are actively seeking to build relationships and alliances with other global powers such as China, Turkey, and the EU. Central Asian nations are diversifying their economic ties, cooperating with China through the Belt and Road Initiative to attract Chinese investments and develop infrastructure, while also opening new markets for their goods. Additionally, they are collaborating with the EU within the framework of the EU’s “Global Gateway” initiative and are enhancing their economic and cultural relationships with Turkey.

Growing Bilateral Cooperation Between Central Asia and the EU: Each of the five Central Asian countries has developed strong individual relations with the EU as a collective entity, impacting various sectors. Notable indicators include high-level meetings held prior to the summit, such as the 20th ministerial meeting between Central Asia and the EU, which took place in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, on March 28, 2025, involving foreign ministers from Central Asian countries and the EU foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, to discuss enhancing cooperation in political, trade, economic, cultural, and humanitarian fields.

Beyond that, the EU Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jozef Síkela, undertook a tour of Central Asia from March 12 to 18, 2025, to promote cooperation under the Global Gateway initiative, focusing on four key areas: transport infrastructure, clean energy, critical raw materials, and digital connectivity. The tour reflected the EU’s increasing strategic interest in a region that represents a €340 billion economy, with an average annual growth rate of 5%.

In addition to the above, there has been a notable increase in visits by leaders from leading EU countries to Central Asia, resulting in the signing of a significant package of agreements aimed at enhancing cooperation across various fields, valued at tens of billions of dollars.

Escalating Common Challenges: The Samarkand summit occurred in the context of several escalating challenges facing both Central Asia and the EU, particularly in security and environmental arenas. Both regions confront shared security threats and challenges, including counter-terrorism, extremism, and transnational crime like drug trafficking. They also face climate threats, with Central Asia experiencing drought, glacial melting, and water scarcity, while the EU deals with extreme temperature rises, wildfires, and changes in ecosystems.

The Russian-Ukrainian War: This conflict has shaken the historically close relations between Central Asian countries and Russia, prompting these nations to reassess their ties with Russia to reduce dependency and minimize risks. From a Central Asian perspective, Russia has become the primary challenge to stability and growth in the region, leading to a reluctance to offer any political or military support for the war in Ukraine.

Conversely, the war has undermined European security and created a scenario where EU and NATO member states view Russia as a significant threat. Simultaneously, the Ukrainian war presented an opportunity for various regional and international powers to increase their engagement and relationships with Central Asian states, thus enhancing their influence and presence in this strategically important region, notably China, the United States, and the European Union.

Increased Influence of Russia and China: Recently, Central Asia has witnessed a noticeable increase in the roles of both Russia and China in the region. Despite Russia’s focus on its war in Ukraine and the resulting implications for its role in Central Asia, it continues to play a significant role due to the region’s vital importance to its national interests. Meanwhile, China is enhancing its political and economic integration with the area, as demonstrated by several indicators, including the first summit held between China and Central Asian states in May 2023 in Xi’an, as well as projects China is establishing within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Strengthening Roles and Positions:

Against the backdrop of the first summit between Central Asia and the EU, it was convened to achieve several strategic, economic, and security objectives:

Enhancing Strategic Positioning: One of the summit’s main objectives is to bolster the strategic relationship between the two parties, especially given the escalating competition between Russia and China for influence in Central Asia. This would elevate the role and stature of both Central Asia and the EU within the current international system. The EU is keen on reinforcing its regional standing in light of the geopolitical balance changes in Central Asia due to the Russian war in Ukraine and the increasing economic integration between Central Asia and China.

Von der Leyen expressed hope that the summit would elevate Brussels’ relations with Central Asia “to a new level,” particularly noting the region’s importance in the priorities set by European Council President Antonio Costa to reconnect with global partners as part of his foreign policy priorities. Central Asian states, on their part, focus on adopting a multi-vector foreign policy aimed at cooperating with all international parties to achieve their interests without excluding any.

Deepening Trade and Investment Relations: The EU is eager to deepen its trade and investment relations with Central Asian countries, especially considering the increasing interest among regional leaders in diversifying their options through developing the “Middle Corridor” trade route. Simultaneously, the EU is focused on securing energy supplies and accessing rare minerals in Central Asia.

In turn, Central Asian countries seek to acquire advanced industrial technology characteristic of EU countries to develop their local industries and expand their exports. Notably, Kazakhstan announced ahead of the summit the discovery of what could be the “largest” rare earth deposit ever, emphasizing the EU’s significant interest in uranium deposits alongside other strategic minerals like titanium, cobalt, and lithium.

EU’s Efforts to Pressure Russia: The war in Ukraine and the sanctions imposed on Russia were crucial issues discussed at the summit, especially as Central Asia is viewed as partly responsible for re-exporting sanctioned Western goods to Russia. The EU seeks to encourage Central Asian states to curb these flows as part of its ongoing efforts to pressure Russia, particularly amid former US President Donald Trump’s attempts to move closer to Moscow. Central Asian states have shown “willingness” to cooperate to prevent circumvention of sanctions.

A New Era of Relations:

In addition to the agreements reached to elevate the relations between Central Asia and the EU to a strategic partnership level, the summit produced numerous positive outcomes that strengthen ties across all areas and usher in a new era, including:

**Launching a 13.2BillionAidPackageforCentralAsia:∗∗TheEUlauncheda€12billion(13.2BillionAidPackageforCentralAsia:∗∗TheEUlauncheda€12billion(13.2 billion) aid package for Central Asia under the Global Gateway initiative, comprising four main priorities: first, a project for an international transport corridor across the Caspian Sea linking Europe and Central Asia with European investments worth €10 billion ($11 billion). Second, projects focusing on climate, energy, and water to enhance water and energy security in the region and create a new green belt around the Aral Sea. Third, digital connectivity, with both sides working to provide internet access to remote areas, schools, and hospitals in Central Asia through European satellites. Fourth, critical raw materials essential for accelerating the transition to clean energy.

Strengthening Cooperation for Regional Stability: The summit stressed the importance of achieving a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace in Ukraine as soon as possible. It also expressed shared concerns regarding the situation in Afghanistan, including security threats and the potential risks of their spillover into Central Asia and Europe. The summit reinforced the necessity of preventing circumvention of the Western sanctions imposed on Russia, marking an important aspect of EU-Central Asia relations. Furthermore, it welcomed the signing of an international border treaty between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan on March 13, 2025.

Enhancing Cooperation to Address Security Challenges: The summit underscored the importance of boosting cooperation in areas such as cybersecurity, hybrid threats, chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats, countering and preventing extremism and terrorism, reinforcing border security, combating drug trafficking and human trafficking, launching a specialized dialogue on counter-terrorism and violent extremism, and building community resilience against misinformation.

Economic Relations, Trade, and Investments: The summit emphasized the need for full implementation of current and future enhanced partnership and cooperation agreements to deepen regional cooperation. It welcomed the expected enhanced partnership and cooperation agreement between the EU and Kyrgyzstan in June 2024 and looked forward to signing similar agreements with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. EU leaders reiterated their ongoing support for Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan’s accession to the World Trade Organization. The summit also saw leaders agreeing to hold an investor forum later this year to attract more investments, particularly for the transport corridor across the Caspian Sea, which is expected to significantly reduce the time needed for exporting goods between both regions.

Strengthening Cooperation in Rare Minerals: The EU signed memoranda of understanding regarding critical raw materials with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, elevating this cooperation to a new level through a joint declaration of intent concerning critical raw materials. The summit adopted a roadmap for 2025-2026 under the MOU between the EU and Kazakhstan regarding critical raw materials, batteries, and green hydrogen. Access to clean energy and rare minerals is vital for the EU in its pursuit of achieving climate neutrality by 2050 and enhancing its independence in strategic sectors.

In conclusion, despite the positive outcomes of the recent Central Asia-EU summit in Samarkand, marking the dawn of a new era in strategic partnership relations between the two sides, particularly in enhancing the strategic standing of both Central Asia and the EU and strengthening their trade and investment ties, the implications of the summit concerning reduced reliance on Russia and China will pose significant challenges to the success of Central Asia and the EU in achieving the announced goals during the summit to activate bilateral relations across various fields. This is in the context of Russia and China’s insistence on intensifying their presence in this region, which is critically important to their national interests. This suggests that the upcoming period will witness increased three-way competition among the EU, Russia, and China for influence and dominance in Central Asia, compelling the states of the region to adopt a foreign policy that balances the three major powers, maximizing their benefits for national and regional interests.