The Jewish Policy Center joined with the Energy, Growth, and Security Program of the International Tax and Investment Center (ITIC) for a panel to examine US strategy in Central Asia. JPC Senior Director Shoshana Bryen moderated the group of regional specialists who emphasized a growing and often overlooked dimension in the region’s diplomacy: its deepening relationships with Israel and new openings created by the Abraham Accords.
The panel included:
- Ariel Cohen, Ph.D. of ITIC
- Stephen Blank, Ph.D. of the American Foreign Policy Institute
- Margarita Assenova, Senior Fellow at The Jamestown Foundation, and
- Kamran Bokhari, Senior Director at the New Lines Institute
During a wide-ranging discussion of security, economics, and emerging geopolitical alignments, panelists noted that Central Asia’s five republics—Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan—have maintained stable diplomatic ties with Israel for more than three decades.
Cohen described the five as “culturally moderate Sunni Muslim countries” whose longstanding channels with Israel have quietly expanded since their independence. He argued that this moment offers the first serious possibility of extending the Abraham Accords beyond the Middle East into the Eurasian space. Cohen pointed to Azerbaijan’s increasingly open interest in joining the Accords and suggested that Central Asian states could follow, describing such a development as a potential “force field for prosperity, investment, and American security.”
Bokhari tied policy shifts to a “new US geo-strategy,” one that connects the Middle East, the Caucasus, and Central Asia into a single emerging architecture, with Israel playing an increasingly important role in energy, security cooperation, and technological exchange across the broader Eurasian corridor. October 7, he said, had not derailed the Accords but only delayed and reshaped the path forward. And Kazakhstan’s recent move toward joining the Abraham Accords—something many analysts believed was years away—signaled accelerating diplomatic realignment.
Assenova tied the changes as well to the countries’ realization that they were “between the Russian bear and the Chinese dragon” after Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine and China’s decreased investments in its Belt and Road initiative. Determined that the way forward was to become politically and economically important, in 2015 the C-5 was established to coordinate and advance the capabilities and resources of the five countries together.
The discussion framed Israel not only as a political partner for Central Asia but also as a technological and environmental one. Cohen highlighted US–Israel leadership on water technology—an area of growing urgency as Central Asia faces shrinking glaciers, reduced inflows to the Caspian Sea, and long-term water stress. He noted that Israeli and American expertise in desalination, water recycling, and efficient irrigation fills a critical gap in regional capabilities.
Blank, emphasizing that increasing water shortages and our understanding of the dislocation and political upheaval that drought has brought to Africa, argued for “sustained bureaucratic support” from the US, including the creation of assistant secretaries for Central Asia in the Departments of Energy, State, and Treasury – as well as in the Pentagon – and close cooperation with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Energy is another major driver in Central Asian planning, as European countries are increasingly turning to the region to supplant Russian energy.
This evolving alignment, panelists agreed, places countries like Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan at the crossroads of Israel–Gulf–Central Asia relations. Assenova underscored that Azerbaijan in particular has “organic” links to the Middle East and is strengthening ties that connect the South Caucasus with Central Asia through energy corridors, trade routes, and now diplomatic channels shaped by the Accords.
As the forum closed, participants emphasized that new links between Israel and Central Asia are not a sideshow but a key part of a broader reordering of Eurasia—driven by regional integration, shifting great-power balances, and US efforts to cultivate stable partners across the continent. They argued that this moment marks the most promising opening in decades for deeper cooperation involving Washington, Central Asia, and Israel.
And indeed, Kazakhstan did announce its accession to the Accords while the program was underway – serendipity for the panel and for the audience.
