GLOBAL ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION AND ITS IMPACT ON THE FOREIGN POLICY OF CENTRAL ASIAN COUNTRIES

The global economy is going through a deep transformation. Sanctions on Russia, the reconfiguration of supply chains, the slow shift toward a multipolar order, and the growing demand for critical minerals linked to the energy transition have all changed the conditions in which states design their external relations. This paper examines how these changes affect the foreign policy of the five Central Asian states — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. It argues that economic transformation acts at the same time as a constraint and as an opportunity for the region. On the one hand, Central Asian states remain landlocked and dependent on larger neighbours. On the other hand, the disruption of older trade routes has increased the value of the region as a transit and resource space, which the five states have used to deepen their long-standing multi-vector foreign policy. The paper looks in particular at the growth of the Trans-Caspian “Middle Corridor”, the China–Central Asia summit mechanism, and the widening of partnerships with the European Union, Türkiye, and the United States. It concludes that the region has moved from being a passive transit zone toward a more active and diversified foreign policy, although this shift is limited by infrastructure gaps, environmental pressures, and great-power rivalry.