Opinion | India can be alternative for Central Asian nations fearing Chinese yoke

Counterterrorism, development and other concerns have sparked renewed political interest in Central Asia, particularly in China and India

While India’s influence in the region is limited by a lack of direct access and China’s heft, it can still be an alternative to those wary of Beijing

Reading Time:4 minutes

Published: 3:30am, 7 Feb 2022

The Beijing Winter Olympics that opened on Friday got off to a discordant start with major democracies choosing a diplomatic boycott of the event to protest against China’s human rights abuses. Within the Asian context, this has been exacerbated by India’s decision to officially distance itself from the Games.

The trigger was China’s decision to include a People’s Liberation Army soldier wounded in the June 2020 border clash in Ladakh in the opening ceremony. A terse Indian foreign ministry statement said it was “regrettable” that China chose to designate Qi Fabao as one of the torch-bearers for the Olympic torch relay.

However, one part of Asia was fully represented – the leaders of the five Central Asian states. This collective presence is also an indication of their support for President Xi Jinping, along with 16 other leaders, led by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The five Central Asian states – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – were part of the former Soviet Union and became independent nations after the end of the Cold War. Their geographical location in the heart of Asia has accorded these sparsely populated, resource-rich nations significant contemporary geopolitical relevance.

Kazakh athletes march in during the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, at the National Stadium in Beijing, on February 4. Photo: AFP

This has been further accentuated by the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the resulting power vacuum. Renewed political interest in Central Asia was reflected in two little-noticed developments in late January that have a complex regional and global strategic subtext.

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