Involving Central Asia in Afghanistan's Future - What can Europe do? - Laruelle, Marlène (CEPS Centre for European Policy Studies, 2011)
EU policy on Central Asia is unclear about the relationship between Afghanistan and Central Asia. The June 2010 Joint EU Council and Commission Implementation Report of the EU Strategy for Central Asia argues that cooperation in the area of security is of growing importance in EU-Central Asia relations, especially in light of developments in Afghanistan over the past few years. Even if security is among the Strategy's seven key areas of engagement, the arguments put forward are vague: the Implementation Report states that "Afghanistan is a security issue of particular common concern and there is scope for more focused dialogue and cooperation between Central Asian countries and the EU"; and "there is a need to integrate the growing link between Central Asia and the wider region into EUCentral Asian cooperation." The Central Asia-Afghanistan relationship is therefore evoked only to recall that the states of Central Asia are directly threatened by the insecurity emanating from Afghanistan