How the Nordic Countries Can Engage Central Asia

The states of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) have recently been deepening their regional coordination, as well as expanding their efforts to deal with outside powers jointly, a format known as C5 plus, indicating the five Central Asian states and a foreign counterpart.

Only in the last month, Central Asian leaders met with Italy’s Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, to expand ties, before congregating some weeks later for a summit with China’s leader, Xi Jinping. Now, Central Asian diplomats are advancing a similar dialogue platform with the five Nordic countries, which would make it, fittingly, a C5+5 format. There is more promise in such a format of cooperation than meets the eye.

Read the full article here at The National Interest published on July 29, 2025.