Security challenges in the Caucasus and Central Asia

The special relations between Germany and Central Asia were the result of roughly one million people of German descend in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in the early nineties. Germany was the only European country that then opened embassies in all five Central Asian countries. This enabled the German 'Bundesnachrichtendienst' (BND) intelligence service to get in a special position, as it already in depth dealt with international drug and arms trafficking in Central Asia well before 9/11. In the South Caucasus, the German presence was also special compared to other European countries due to the gratefulness for the role of former soviet foreign minister and later Georgian president Shevardnadze in the reunification of Germany. Apart from these particularities, German foreign policy fully corresponds to European foreign policy, and is essentially designed in the European framework. On the basis of bilateral relations, Germany is conducting development cooperation to strenghten the survivability of the states in the regions by promoting regional cooperation, and direct assistance to the solution of humanitarian, social and ecological problems. At the same time, the limits of capacities to act are understood. In order to create stability and cooperation, Germany views the support of the EU and OSCE as well as that of Russia, the US, China, Turkey and Iran as vital.

Getting back to the questions raised in the beginning: yes, there has been a special German perspective, but neither a German nor a European strategic approach towards the Caucasus- Central Asian area; different national papers, perspectives, approaches and interests don't add up to something that could be called a consistent strategy, and basically the same holds true for the U.S. Several potential trans-atlantic points of concern and issues with regard to the regions of Central Asia and the Caucasus can be raised however.