Abstract: This paper investigates the growing engagement of the European Union with five Central Asian countries. Until recently, the European Union has been a secondary actor in the region lagging behind Russia, China, and the US. However, due to recent geopolitical
developments and the ever-increasingly growth o f Russian and Chinese influence in Central Asia, the EU has recalibrated its foreign policy in Central Asia and set up to enhance cooperation with the states in question. The present paper analyzes the EU’s intensified engagement with the aforementioned countries through the examination of primary and secondary sources. Thefindings showed that the EU wants to change its secondarypower status in the region and achieve new geopolitical and geo-economic ambitions and tackle security concerns over the region and beyond. The EU’s ambitions in the region seem relatively feasible. However, the EU will have to compete with behemoth Russia and China, along with other rising regionalpowers in the region like Turkey, India, andIran.
Download article