Central Asian states concerned about situation in Afghanistan

New Delhi/Moscow, Aug 12 (IANS) Russia and the Central Asian states are most concerned about the evolving situation in Afghanistan, especially with the Taliban taking over a number of cities in the war-torn nation.

There is a sense among the leadership in Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan that any continued uncertainty in Northern Afghanistan dominated by the strong Taliban onslaught could have likely implications on the Central Asian states.

As in the past, radical Islamic elements from Central Asian states tend to get encouraged by the successes achieved by the Taliban in Afghanistan with strong and overwhelming sentiments impacting radical sections of the society.

There is a fear of jihadi sentiments taking over the youth of the region, who represent a new generation with radical ideas.

Most significantly, the Central Asian states are concerned about the likely outflow of such people into Afghanistan to join the Taliban, just as large number of Central Asians had joined the ISIS in the past.

There is a sense among the security agencies in the Central Asian states that over a period of time, as the fighting continues in Afghanistan and with the Taliban losing large number of cadres, there is bound to be a strong demand for recruitment of fresh cadres from the Central Asian states.

Just as the Taliban have been able to showcase their victory against the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), in case of a downslide in its operations and severe casualties faced, they would play the sympathy card to draw in support from the youth in the Central Asian states.

In the given circumstances, in order to offset any such sentiments in Central Asia and also to send a clear warning to the Taliban that their activities should be restricted only to Afghanistan without impacting their borders with the Central Asian states, Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan carried out a military exercise along the Tajik-Afghan border which ended on August 10.

Significantly, the aim of the trilateral exercise was to increase readiness to repel the threat of infiltration of terrorist formations from Afghanistan.

Sudden strengthening of the border with Afghanistan is an indication of Moscow and its partners preparing for the most unfavorable scenario of a spill-over of Taliban activities into Central Asia.

The exercise was the most ambitious maneuvering by these three countries in recent times. It is worth noting that Russia's participation is also associated with concerns that Russia faces the threat of impact of developments in Afghanistan on the Muslim autonomous republics of Russia.

There is no doubt that the ensuing developments have brought together the three countries to deal with this growing threat from Afghanistan jointly and would mushroom into a new found collaboration on the military front.

All the three sides have decided to conduct such operations from time to time along the Tajik-Uzbek border with Afghanistan.

Significantly, the exercise was a high profile one with the use of Mi-8 transport and combat helicopters, including the Mi-24 attack helicopter. The mammoth AN-124 Ruslan heavy transport aircraft was also used in the exercise.

The exercise was conducted around 20 km short of the border with Afghanistan. The main theme of the exercise was to undertake joint action to ensure the territorial integrity of the Central Asian states. Special forces units also participated in the exercise.