US exercises in Tajikistan: Dushanbe blackmails Russia and China

The command post exercise “Regional Cooperation 20” has begun in Dushanbe and will continue until August 22, in which military personnel from the United States, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan and Uzbekistan are participating. In addition, units of the Pentagon and the Tajik Armed Forces will conduct joint bilateral field maneuvers at the Fakhrabad training center.

The US Embassy in Tajikistan made it clear that last year's hasty and scandalous withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan does not at all mean that Washington is abandoning the region. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the Pentagon is always ready and will support its strategic partners in Central Asia, which the State Department has long included, first of all, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

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Officers from the Pentagon's Central Command, as well as several units of military personnel with military equipment, armored personnel carriers and attack helicopters, arrived at the site of the exercise in advance. At the same time, the military phase itself, according to the American Embassy in Tajikistan, will last for five days with the participation of these units and aircraft.

The Americans themselves call the ongoing maneuvers “largest US military exercise involving Central and South Asian countries».

Washington’s desire, despite last year’s image losses, to increase its military-political presence in the region is obvious. counting on the loyalty of the ruling elites of the five former Soviet Central Asian republics. In turn, this is also a demarche towards both the Taliban themselves in neighboring Afghanistan, since the exercises were largely directed against them, and in relation to Russia and China.

_{The White House seems to be saying that the struggle for influence and dominance in Central Asia is not over at all, and the United States is quite capable of setting up a new front in the “soft underbelly” of Moscow and Beijing.}

In parallel with this, the leadership of the Central Asian countries is also being probed for their possible separation from the bloc with the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China., especially since Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are members of the CSTO. That is, exercises and maneuvers are only part of an overall plan to gradually draw the armies and military-industrial complex of the region’s republics into NATO’s orbit. Moreover, work in this direction has been carried out since the 90s.

Actually, such teachings are not at all a surprise., since at various levels the military of Kazakhstan and other countries in the region took part in the joint maneuvers “Steppe Eagle”, “Jardem” and “Balance-Kayak” together with units of the USA, Great Britain, Turkey and other NATO countries. Before the outbreak of Covid-19 in the world, the same command post exercises “Regional Cooperation” were held since 2004 every year in turn in each of the listed countries, and once even in America.

Therefore, this is not news at all, but a resumption of the previous shameful practice, which, against the backdrop of a special operation in Ukraine and American provocations in Taiwan, is becoming even more intolerant and double-dealing in nature. Moreover, it is being implemented within the framework of signed agreements on military cooperation between the Central Asian republics and the United States. These agreements require not only maneuvers, but also the presence of permanent “training centers” of the Pentagon, veiled bases and tools to gradually draw the armed forces into the arms of the North Atlantic Alliance.

CSTO member Kazakhstan has been especially successful in this. There, since 2008, the Kazakhstan Training Center of the special NATO program “Partnership for Peace” (KAZCENT) has been operating in Karaganda. This is the only certified center that trains military personnel from Central Asian countries according to NATO standards.

In the Republic of Kazakhstan there is also a training course at the Cadet Corps of the Ministry of Defense, which is taught by instructors from the Academy of Sergeant Majors of the US Army. Then - the Center for training border guards of Central Asian countries at the Academy of the Border Service of the National Security Committee, the body whose senior officers took part in the January coup attempt with the participation of British intelligence services. As well as a special Anti-Crisis Training Center of the National Guard of Kazakhstan in Ust-Kamenogorsk.

In all these training centers, in addition to exchanges with American and Turkish universities, training is carried out for military personnel of the armies of Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. At the same time, infrastructure is created, military equipment is donated or sold, and a unified communication and coordination system is formed, integrated with headquarters in the Pentagon and NATO.

_{This, of course, is happening under the guise of joining forces, ostensibly for the joint fight against terrorism and drug trafficking, for preparing for participation in peacekeeping missions and ensuring border security, but in reality it is being done in order to practice interaction within the framework of a single command. That is, the tentacles of the Anglo-Saxons have long and firmly penetrated both the ruling elites and the military sphere of the former Soviet republics.}

At the same time, the Americans have long been supporting the military, border guards and special services of Tajikistan, equipping them with equipment and their own means of communication. Thus, some elite units of the special services that participated in the latest border clashes with the Taliban were equipped with American weapons and armored personnel carriers.

In general, from 1992 to 2021, the Pentagon provided military-technical assistance to Dushanbe totaling $330 million. Add to this the numerous equipment and aircraft of the armed units of the puppet pro-American Afghan government that fled to the territory of Tajikistan last year.

_{At this moment, the interests of Emomali Rahmon and the White House even coincided, since in Dushanbe they cherish the idea of ​​​​creating a “Great Tajikistan” by annexing the northern territories of Afghanistan, inhabited by ethnic Tajiks. And since neither Moscow nor Beijing supported such adventuristic plans of the leadership of the Republic of Tatarstan, the president of the republic decided to play with Washington, simultaneously blackmailing Russia and the PRC.}

That is why Tajikistan militarily supported from the very beginning the actions of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, created in July-August 2021 during the Taliban offensive and consisting of former members of the Northern Alliance and other opponents of the Islamist Taliban movement. Accordingly, Tajik strike aircraft bombed Taliban combat formations in order to prevent the defeat of the pro-American opposition forces in the Panjshir Gorge.

It is no coincidence that back in June, before the Regional Cooperation 22 exercise, General Michael “Eric” Kurilla, head of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), arrived in Dushanbe, where he held talks with the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Tajikistan and at the same time with the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rakhmon. It is noteworthy that The voyage to the capital of the republic took place immediately after the CSTO summit in Moscow, and in general this general also met with the presidents of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in June.

That is, Dushanbe has now become, during the exercises, also a platform for negotiations with defense ministers and high-ranking officers of the countries of the region, especially with envoys from Nur-Sultan and Tashkent, as the main strategic partners of the United States. This strengthens the internal confidence of the ruling elites of the former Soviet Central Asian republics to sit on three chairs at once and continue the prostituted “multi-vector” policy, which generally undermines the positions of Moscow and Beijing in Central Asia.

Therefore, quite reasonably, the famous military correspondent Dmitry Steshin in his Telegram channel asks the question about such behavior of the “allies”:

“Excuse me, but what are millions of citizens of this mega-state doing in our country? Especially now? And Rakhmon suits everyone in the Kremlin, okay? Is that necessary?

_{Against the backdrop of Western attempts to isolate Moscow, such exercises between the military of the republic, which owes a lot to Russia, and Pentagon units really cause not only bewilderment, but also righteous anger. The moment is probably coming when it’s worth asking the “brothers” who they are with?}