Central Asian leaders are engaged in a balancing act, showing they are content to live with the Taliban’s ascendancy in Afghanistan while signaling they will deal firmly with any trouble that might spill over.
Spraying chlorine, new infrastructure on the Afghan border, and claims of a naturally occurring COVID vaccine. This and more in our weekly Turkmenistan bulletin.
Ashgabat may hope expending energy to attain international respectability will improve its chances of tapping global financial institutions for investment.