UN sees potential in Central Asia

The United Nations Regional Center for Sustainable Development (SDGs) for Central Asia and Afghanistan is being created in Kazakhstan. This center will become the most important coordination platform for international efforts aimed at solving urgent problems in the region. The key areas of activity will be poverty eradication, the development of economic ties and transport and logistics routes, the regulation of water resources, the fight against climate change, as well as improving the health and education systems. Special attention will be paid to Afghanistan.

The UN General Assembly has unanimously adopted a resolution on the establishment of the UN Regional Center for Sustainable Development Goals for Central Asia and Afghanistan in Alma Ata, with the support of 152 member states. The initiative, first presented by President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at the 74th session of the General Assembly, received broad international support, confirming the global commitment to sustainable development and the desire to promote progress in Central Asia and Afghanistan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan (RK) said in a statement.

The new UN center will develop projects involving the governments of the region’s countries, international financial institutions, businesses and non-governmental organizations. It is planned that the center will become a powerful tool of the United Nations in the region to solve pressing problems.

The opening of the Regional Center in Alma Ata was preceded by the inclusion of the Termez Multifunctional Transport and Logistics Hub in the global supply network of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in February 2025. Thus, the Termez hub has become the eighth logistics center in the global supply chain around the world. The UNHCR global network, with its centers in Amman, Dubai, Nairobi, Accra, Douala, Copenhagen and Panama City, allocates more than $500 million in vital resources (tents, blankets, medicines and more) to respond promptly to humanitarian disasters. The strategic location of Termez at the intersection of Central and South Asia, where transport and energy infrastructure has been created, has become crucial in making decisions on integrating the Uzbek hub into the global network.

According to the UNHCR Representative in Afghanistan, Arafat Jamal, Afghanistan will greatly benefit from the expansion of the UNHCR emergency supply management system through the logistics center in Termez.: “At the same time, the importance of this hub goes far beyond Afghanistan. It will strengthen emergency response measures at the global level, strengthen regional cooperation, and step up the fight against climate change.

It is through Termez that the transport routes from north to south pass. The fact that the Kabul government intends to return Afghanistan to the role of an important transit state was stated by the Minister of Industry and Trade of Afghanistan, Alhaji Nuriddin Azizi, during the business forum in Astana in October 2024: “Transit can become the most important bridge between states. We need to focus more on north-south cooperation.” Azizi stressed the need to develop transport infrastructure in the Islamic Republic for full-fledged cooperation and counts on Kazakhstan’s help in this direction. Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Serik Zhumangarin also spoke about the favorable transport situation of both countries. According to him, in the first half of 2024, the transit flow of road cargo from Afghanistan through Kazakhstan amounted to 5 thousand tons, last year there were 10 thousand tons (see NG dated 10/23/24).

The Taliban (a terrorist organization banned in Russia), having come to power in Afghanistan, resumed key regional infrastructure projects, in particular the Trans-Afghan Railway. Kazakhstan decided to become another participant in this project last year. Experts note that the Trans-Afghan corridor will reduce the time of cargo delivery between the countries of Central and South Asia by almost 10 times, while reducing the cost of transportation. Thus, Tashkent’s proposal to create a multimodal transport corridor Belarus–Russia–Kazakhstan–Uzbekistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan is filled with real content.

Turkmenistan’s proposed railway route through Herat and Kandahar to Pakistani ports, involving Kazakhstan in order to increase trade, may compete with this project. This project implements the Taliban’s plans to develop an internal railway network and a Lapis lazuli corridor. The activation of Central Asia in trans-Afghan communications promises economic and geopolitical benefits, but also carries the risk of competition between the states of the region and interference from external forces. The only question is whether the UN Regional Center will be able to contribute to the development of these projects.

Alexander Knyazev, Doctor of Historical Sciences, a leading researcher at the MGIMO Institute of International Studies at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, doubts the effectiveness of the UN center for the region. “Active participation in various international multilateral formats has always been a distinctive feature of Kazakhstan’s foreign policy, we can recall the chairmanship of the OSCE, as a non–permanent member of the UN Security Council, and in UN peacekeeping missions. This activity has always complemented the multi-vector policy of Astana, creating a certain positive international authority for the republic. But now, when the UN crisis is becoming more and more obvious, as well as the ability of the UN to carry out some practical activities to fulfill its mission in the world, the credibility of the institutions of this organization can be questioned. For comparison, we can recall the opening of the UN Center for Preventive Diplomacy in Central Asia in Ashgabat in 2007, which over the past years has simply not proved itself in solving any really pressing problems in the region. The benefits of its existence for Turkmenistan itself are also questionable,” Alexander Knyazev told NG.

The expert does not exclude that the same fate may await the center opened in Alma Ata. “Of course, the existence of such a center will add a positive touch to the foreign policy image of Kazakhstan. Of course, the UN will allocate some funds for the work of the office of this center and the creation of several dozen jobs for Kazakhstani citizens, but by and large, the UN is initially, even regardless of its current state, not the institution that would be able to provide the countries of the region with what they really need for their development. truly sustainable development. The region urgently needs to solve problems related to energy, water use, food security, communications development, and investments in productive sectors of the economy. All this is provided by completely different institutions,” said Knyazev.