What Will Trump's Policy Be Toward Central Asia?

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

We know what U.S. policy for Central Asia was when Donald Trump was president the first time. But the region has changed significantly in the four years since. U.S. forces are no longer in Afghanistan, the relationships between Central Asia’s governments and Russia have shifted since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, trade routes have expanded, and there are new issues like energy resources and access to critical minerals. Joining host Bruce Pannier to discuss U.S.-Central Asian ties under the second Trump administration are guests Bakyt Beshimov, a former member of Kyrgyzstan’s parliament and former Kyrgyz ambassador to the OSCE and to India who now teaches at Northeastern University in Boston; Richard Hoagland of the Washington-based Caspian Policy Center, who previously served as U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan and Tajikistan and charge d’affaires to Turkmenistan; and Eric Rudenshiold, also of the Washington-based Caspian Policy Center, who served as director for Central Asia in the National Security Council under both Trump and President Joe Biden.