Experts appreciated the EU's attempts to strengthen itself in Central Asia

The European Union's attempts to strengthen itself in Central Asia can hardly be called successful, the interviewed experts told Izvestia.

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"Attempts are quite limited because, with rare exceptions, the European Union is an important economic partner for Kazakhstan alone. For everyone else, geographical remoteness, sufficient business passivity towards the region, a generally weak understanding of its main tasks and development goals, and to some extent the selfishness of European companies limit the EU's ability to become a full-fledged and influential actor in the region," said Stanislav Pritchin, Head of the Central Asia Sector at IMEMO RAS.

Russia is much more represented in Central Asia, so we should not expect a sharp reorientation of the region towards Europe in the near future, Daria Saprynskaya is sure.

The EU–Central Asia Summit will be held in Samarkand on April 3-4.

Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:

Not very nice: The EU is trying to strengthen its influence in Central Asia