Abstract:

China has gained a significant position in Central Asia since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, both as an economic and strategic partner. Central Asian states are approaching a cornerstone for their history, in which their economies and - somehow their policies - are shaped more towards Chinese influence rather than Russia’s, considering that China’s economic plans and infrastructure activities under the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) framework, the BRI have bolstered this scenario. Today, China is an important steak-holder in the region and has a real impact on Central Asian economies, especially the five countries, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, which have respectfully cooperated and sought to achieve mutual benefits through the BRI. In this policy, through bilateral relations, China promises to improve the traffic connectivity to the strategic regional places from the Pacific to the Baltic Sea. In order to create a new economic Belt in Asia, particularly in Central Asia, China's President Xi Jinping suggested that China and Central Asian countries must expedite their communication, improve road connectivity, and further trade. For financial integration, the Chinese government created the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which is part of China's broader push to develop the necessary infrastructure to connect China with trading partners. China considers the AIBB, like the BRI, as a tool to replicate its economic success by considering the needs of the states in Central Asia. New approaches, achievements, opportunities, challenges, and obstacles exist between the Central Asian countries and China. According to each country's interest, other neighboring and trans-regional countries direct and indirectly influence this relationship, and the reaction or response to this influence is diverse. The focus, then, is to comprehend the strategic implications of the BRI for Central Asia and how this region so far has answered to it.

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