When NATO representatives meet with their Afghan and Central Asian counterparts in Istanbul on November 2 to discuss the “New Silk Road” project, they will try to play up its mutual economic benefits. But in order to have any chance of realizing those benefits, plan promoters must address the “rent-seeking” mindset of Central Asian leaders, especially that of Uzbek strongman Islam Karimov.
At the heart of Washington’s Silk Road vision is free trade, or, at least, freer trade. But Uzbekistan, which has emerged as an important Central Asian transit hub, has exhibited in recent years a demonstrable preference for higher trade barriers. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan is casting its lot with a new economic grouping, a Moscow-led customs union known as the Eurasian Economic Community, which, while wanting to eliminate tariffs among participating states, intends to maintain firm trade walls to the outside.
During a stop in the Tajik capital Dushanbe on October 22, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton touted the New Silk Road as “a network of transit and trade connections to open up new markets for raw materials and energy and agricultural products that can be traded among all nations in the region.” For the plan to work, however, Clinton said that “barriers to trade have to come down.”
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