DW - Steinmeier: Europe Needs to Take a Closer Look at Central Asia

[blackhorse]

Steinmeier: Europe Needs to Take a Closer Look at Central Asia

On a trip through Central Asia, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Saturday that the European Union needs to take a greater interest in the resource-rich former Soviet republics.

Winding down a week-long of Central Asia Steinmeier said the EU needed to "take a new look at the region."

"The need for an initiative for Central Asia by the European Union has never been clearer to me than after this trip," he told reporters in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, the final stop on his five-nation tour.

After noting that conflicts in Afghanistan and Iran, two of the region's neighboring countries, were central concerns in Germany and the rest of Europe, Steinmeier said it is crucial for the EU to pay attention to an area of the world already closely watched by Russia, China, Japan and the United States.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2225329,00.html

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Comment: The western world should have engaged with Russia and the former Soviet republics when Gorbachev was still around. Talk about missed opportunities.

[XemaSab]

1. America's already taking a closer look at Central Asia

this weekend with Borat. :D