Lord Cameron woos Central Asian leaders on historic tour on Russia’s doorstep
The Foreign Secretary has completed a historic tour of all five former Soviet central Asian states and Mongolia to drum up support for the West along Russia’s southern border.
During his five-day mission, Lord Cameron became the first British foreign minister to visit Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan, and the first to visit Uzbekistan since 1997.
“We’re here because we believe you should be able to make a choice, to partner with us in a way that is good for both our security and our prosperity,” he told Kazakh reporters after meeting Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the president of Kazahstan, in Astana, the country’s futuristic capital.
A parliamentary report last year criticised the government for a lack of interest in central Asia despite its strategic importance.
The resource-rich region is wedged between China, Russia, Afghanistan, Iran and the Caspian Sea, and Beijing and Moscow consider dominance there a priority.
Since its invasion of Ukraine two years ago, the Kremlin has looked to central Asia to help it dodge sanctions and has expanded military and security ties.
It has also used central Asia’s railway network to send fuel to Iran as payment for drones and missiles.
Rick Fawn, a professor at St Andrews University, said Lord Cameron’s visit was a prestige trip for Britain in which his status as a former prime minister impressed regional leaders.
“It is at least some British flag-waving, especially in central Asia where there is now fluidity, opportunity and danger because of shifting Russian capacities. This is space that will otherwise continue to be filled by China,” said Prof Fawn.
Lord Cameron posed for dozens of photo-ops during his trip, including inspecting a yurt in Turkmenistan and tasting plov, a local lamb pilaf, in Uzbekistan.
In Bishkek, he was photographed shaking hands with Sadyr Japarov, the Kyrgyz president, less than three weeks after he imposed a Kremlin-inspired law designed to undermine Western-backed NGOs and media groups.
Central Asia’s leaders initially publicly doubted Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine but have since given the Kremlin more support.
Erica Marat, a professor at the National Defense University in Washington DC, said that the West has fallen behind in the race to win influence in central Asia because it has not been consistent in its interest since the region’s nations won independence in 1991.
“I think the feeling in central Asia is that this increased attention from Western countries is temporary, it’s not going to last for too long,” she said.
As well as looking to sweet talk central Asia’s leaders, Lord Cameron also discussed strengthening labour routes to Britain.
Over the past couple of years, the government has encouraged migrant workers from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Britain to plug workforce gaps created by Brexit.
In June last year, Leo Docherty, then the Europe Minister, visited central Asia to agree deals for fruit pickers to travel to Britain. Nicholas Bowler, the British ambassador in Kyrgyzstan, has described Kyrgyz workers as “hard-working” and “reliable”.
