“There’s a level of competition – you’ve got Russia, China and the US. There’s Turkey as well, and India is developing a strategy.”
—Why, that’s top EU regional envoy to Central Asia Pierre Morel, discussing attempts by Russia and China to freeze the EU out of acquiring energy supplies. It almost sounds like he’s talking a game, a really big game, between countries that want to control the place. A Great Game, perhaps?
This post was written by...
Joshua Foust – author of 1801 posts on Registan.net.
Joshua Foust is a Fellow at the American Security Project and the author of Afghanistan Journal: Selections from Registan.net. His research focuses primarily on Central and South Asia. Joshua is a correspondent for The Atlantic and a columnist for PBS Need to Know. Joshua appears regularly on the BBC World News, Aljazeera, and international public radio. Joshua is also a regular contributor to Foreign Policy’s AfPak Channel, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Reuters, and the Christian Science Monitor. Follow him on twitter: @joshuafoust
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Well, well, an EU diplomat produces an age-old cliche on Central Asia. There’s a first. Was it this blog that used to have a “Great Game watch”? I recall someone writing some mildly ironic posts on the repetition of this “great game” nonsense. I’m always a little bemused by this EU obsession with Central Asian energy supplies. Sure, its good to help them diversify to other export markets if possible, and Europe needs energy security, but geography makes Russia and China the obvious markets for Central Asian energy suppliers. And any competition is surely good news – it means Central Asians can charge near world prices for their exports.