Arrived at nightfall, nothing abnormal. The restaurants are open, the inhabitants go out with the family and even go to a small fun fair on the outskirts of the city. Termez even has several hotels to receive foreign delegations and rare tourists. The next morning, we find our guide Maksoud, 50 years old and former adviser to the mayor of the region. The man with a tanned complexion and the Persian facies makes us visit term and its surroundings. This locality conceals many historical jewels such as the Fortress of Kampir Tepe, which hosted the troops of Alexander the Great before its crossing of Afghanistan, or vestiges of the time of Gengis Khan and Tamerlan.
In this regard, our guide tells us about a legend from the province that all people with blue eyes are descendants of the Macedonian conqueror. It is true that on the borders of Central Asia, many ethnic groups have mixed with conquests and population flows.
When we tackle the thorny subject of the Taliban, our guide a little sly starts to laugh by questioning us: “Why do Westerners make a fixette on them?” The few times I meet Europeans, they ask me this question about our relationship to the new masters of Afghanistan ”. MAKSOUD explains to us that Uzbekistan has no problem with Pachtounes leaders, on the contrary. “Since they took power in 2021, they secured the border and actively fight against a common enemy”he underlines, a little annoyed by our interrogation, referring to the Islamic State (IS) in Khorassan.
This branch of Daesh is particularly active in Central Asia and in particular in Uzbek territory, since the implosion of the old Islamic movement of Uzbekistan (MIO) in 2015. The Taliban regularly face the jihadists of IS which has several cells in Afghanistan. Two attacks in September made around twenty victims. We try to find out more about what the guide thinks of the absence of women’s rights in the neighboring country. He launches us laconically: “It doesn’t look at us”.
Towards an economic integration of the new masters of Kabul
Maksoud leads us to the Afghan bridge, an ultra-militized area that crosses the river of Amou-Daria, the last natural bulwark before the first hills of Afghanistan. Stressed, the guide enjoins us not to take out our cameras to avoid any problem with the Uzbeke army. Not far from the border, you can see a huge United Nations warehouse, where international aid is stored for the Afghan people. Since the Taliban resumed power in August 2021, humanitarian needs exploded throughout the country.
A stone’s throw from the neighboring area, the guide shows us the new Central Asian Chamber of Commerce, which seeks to get Afghanistan out of its economic marginalization. “It is poverty and misery that push people towards radicality, that’s why Uzbekistan – but also with other neighboring countries – seeks to help Kabul to integrate”indicates the former regional councilor. The arrival on August 18 of the Ouzbek head of government, Abdulla Oipov, in Kabul, where he was received by his counterpart Taliban Mawlavi Abdul Kabir, therefore constitutes a first step towards the integration of the Paris country. The two parties have concluded some 35 protocols of trade and investment agreements worth 2.5 billion dollars (2.3 billion euros), displaying the ambition to bring their turnover to 3 billion dollars in the future.
By hitting the road, we can see a sign announcing the construction of a new university – Central Asia University – for the start of the school year in September 2025. Maksoud tells us that “This faculty will receive students from the whole region, including Afghanistan”. Far from the Western requirements to normalize its relations with Kabul, Uzbekistan intends to secure its border and become an engine country for Central Asia. As for the Taliban, after more than three years at the head of the country, they are barely starting to get out of their marginalization of the Nations concert. The major regional powers, like Iran, Russia and Pakistan, maintain official relations with the new Afghan leaders for security and above all economic issues.
Moscow has also removed the Taliban from his list of terrorist organizations. Qatar is distinguished by the presence of a Taliban political bureau in its country since 2013. Doha was the scene of negotiations between the Taliban and the Americans in February 2020, paving the way for the complete withdrawal of the United States the following year. Qatar can therefore act as a choice interlocutor with the Taliban, present in the Doha Embassy. Beijing provides in particular for the construction of a railway to connect southern Uzbekistan to the port of Gwadar in Pakistan via Afghan territory.
