The first-ever high-level summit between the European Union and the five Central Asian nations—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan—started in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on Thursday, April 3rd. The two-day event brought a flurry of top EU officials, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, to the region. With economic strains mounting and tensions simmering between EU member states and the United States, Brussels appears eager to expand its influence and secure alternative trade partnerships.
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev hailed the summit as a “historic chance” for deeper cooperation. The EU, however, seems just as interested in securing access to the region’s valuable resources. Over the past seven years, trade between Central Asia and the EU has surged to €54 billion, with more than 1,000 European companies now operating in Uzbekistan alone.
Kyrgyzstan’s Deputy Prime Minister Edil Baisalov underscored the region’s search for “reliable partners” in an increasingly unstable global landscape. Yet, what exactly the EU brings to the table—beyond lofty rhetoric and resource extraction ambitions—remains unclear.
Central Asia is rich in rare earth materials, essential for the EU’s costly and controversial green energy transition. The Union has long cloaked its foreign ventures in idealistic language, and this summit was no exception. One senior EU official told Euronews, “The European Union is not only promoting the extraction and the exports of raw materials, but in our mind, we want to promote industry locally in the region, thus also helping the development of clean technology.”
