US military presence in Central Asia unlikely amid Taliban rise

The US had boots on the ground in Central Asia when it entered Afghanistan in 2001, but regional dynamics have shifted.

The United States is unlikely to gain a military foothold in the Central Asian states to the north of Afghanistan, as those governments and neighbouring powers Russia and China prepare for the reality of Taliban rule, according to analysts. The US had established temporary bases in Uzbekistan, which closed in 2005, and Kyrgyzstan, which closed in 2014, when foreign troops initially invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and toppled 5 years of Taliban rule, aided in part by the buy-in from Russia and China in support of the US and NATO mission. Twenty years later, both Russia and China have diverged from US strategy towards Afghanistan, forging ahead with an approach that does not include having a US presence in their back yard, Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, a Central Asia expert at the University of Pittsburg, told Al Jazeera.