East of the middle east

The visit in late 1993 of Iran’s President All Akbar Rafsanjani to the Muslim republics of Central Asia heralds Iran’s push for further expansion of its economic and political relations with these newly independent states which stretch from the Caspian Sea to China. At the time of independence, it was widely assumed that these new republics would rapidly become reabsorbed into Asia proper; that the southern half of Kazakhstan and Kirghizia would drift towards China, Uzbekistan and Turkmenia towards Turkey, and Tajikistan towards Iran. But this has not happened. After a long period of what they see as neo-colonial rule and exploitation by Russia, they want a chance to be independent.