Page 61 - bne IntelliNews monthly magazine May 2024

bne May 2024
Nato, within the framework of its Partnership for Peace programme, has also conducted training exercises in Central Asia with most of the Central Asian states, including the Steppe Eagle exercises in Kazakhstan that were held annually from 2006 to 2019.
Something different
The Birlestik exercises are not being held under the aegis of a multilateral organisation. They bring together five countries whose territory stretches from the Pamir and Tian Shan Mountains in the east to Azerbaijan on the western side of the Caspian Sea.
Four of the participants – Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan – are members, along with Turkey, of the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS). The OTS has significantly increased its influence in the Caspian region, both economically and in terms of security cooperation, since Russia launched its full-scale war on Ukraine in late February 2022.
Tajiks are a Persian people, and so Tajikistan is not an OTS member. That makes Tajikistan’s involvement in these drills especially interesting.
The other CIS state in Central Asia, Turkmenistan, has since 1995 had a UN-recognised status as a neutral country. It neither takes part in joint military exercises nor join any international organisation that is not focused on economics and trade relations.
So, the question is, what brings these five countries together to conduct the Birlestik military exercises?
“Tajiks are a Persian people, and so Tajikistan is not an Organisation of Turkic States member. That makes Tajikistan’s involvement in these
drills especially interesting”
It cannot be concerns about Afghanistan. If it were, it would make more sense to hold these drills near the Afghan border in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
The drills, let’s recall, will take place along Kazakhstan’s Caspian coast. Whatever hypothetical situation the exercises are designed to counter, they do not imagine any role for Caspian littoral states Russia and Iran.
That has not gone unnoticed. One Russian media report asked if observers will be invited since “at a minimum, the Caspian countries should be invited to look at how ‘actions
Opinion 61 will be undertaken to carry out combat training tasks in
determining the zone of armed conflicts...’”
The report noted that “so far the official information about the exercises says absolutely nothing about either Russia or Iran in connection with Birlestik-2024.”
The drills are scheduled for July, thus there is still ample time to send invitations to Russia and Iran to observe Birkestik 2024.
One thread that connects the five countries taking part in Birlestik-2024 is that they are all part of the Middle Corridor, a multimodal network of trade routes in Central Asia and the Caucasus that connect Europe to China without the transit use of any Russian territory.
The Middle Corridor has been expanding rapidly since the Russia invasion of Ukraine triggered Western sanctions on trade involving Russia. The route has also gained some new
Could the rise of the Middle Corridor be on the minds of the five Birlestik-2024 participant nations? (Credit: MiddleCorridor.com).
importance since Houthi militia in Yemen started attacking shipping in the Red Sea in late 2023.
The Middle Corridor, sometimes referred to as the Trans- Caspian International Trade Route, or TITR, cannot handle the volumes of trade once shipped via the Northern Corridor through Russia, or come anywhere near to compensating for volumes of goods carried by sea through the Suez Canal.
However, the Middle Corridor is the safest and least complicated option for conducting trade between Europe and Asia at the moment and demonstrating that the route enjoys protection might be part of the reason for holding Birlestik-2024.
Whatever the reason, the exercises have started to bother some people in Russia and probably in Iran as well. The countries involved in Birlestik-2024 will, however, see the fact that they are cooperating to solve their common security problems, without resorting to help from bigger countries, as a good sign.
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