Japan today opens its first summit with Central Asian nations, joining China and others in the scramble for the region’s abundant natural resources.
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan have rich supplies of fossil fuels and critical minerals, and historic links to Beijing and Moscow. Those factors have led Western capitals — and now Tokyo — to compete for their attention: In particular, the region offers a way of breaking China’s stranglehold on rare earth production.
Despite, or because of, the longstanding ties, China’s rising influence is unpopular in Central Asia, particularly as Beijing props up autocratic regimes, and Japan and the West see an opportunity to stop it falling into China’s sphere of influence.