Then there are some diplomatic affairs that Western newsrooms tend to label as "regional," an elegant euphemism for "ignore." One such gathering was taking place in Bishkek this week, featuring a delegation of Central Asian presidents, with Ilham Aliyev, president of Azerbaijan, as the guest of honor. Perhaps the first part has been changed exponentially. Europe spent the better part of three decades treating Central Asia as an afterthought, a distant patchwork of "stans" worth a diplomatic visit every few years, rarely a strategic priority. That neglect has become harder to justify. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine forced Brussels to hunt for energy routes and trade corridors that bypass Moscow, the region once dismissed as peripheral has quietly become central to Europe's calculations. Which is why today's gathering in Bishkek, informal in name only, deserves more attention on this side of the continent than it is likely to get. Every recalibration in this part of Eurasia - who trades with whom, whose pipelines get built, whose ports matter- now ripples back to the old continent faster than most European capitals seem to realise.

The presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan will meet with Aliyev from 30 July to 1 August for a consultative meeting described as informal. There is nothing informal about anything at this level. The list of........

© AzerNews