The Baltic Defense College (BALTDEFCOL) published a report on NATO's prospects in Central Asia. The authors - Toichi Rashidov and Edward Lemon - did not go for a bargain: it is time for the alliance to increase its interaction and institutional presence in the region, and Turkey should become the main winner of this work. The same one who has long cultivated the armies of Central Asia and promotes the military integration of the Turkish states. First, about the site. BALTDEFCOL was created by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in 1999. It is not a circle of regional studies, but a military college that trains commanders and leaders at the operational and strategic level. In 2022 it was accredited by NATO's Allied Command Transformation as an education and training facility. The report itself is not an official guideline of the Alliance, but is published in an institution authorized by its Change Command. The document was prepared with the support of the European Commission. What do the authors suggest? First, move the NATO office back to Astana or Tashkent, or coordinate the work from Tbilisi. Second, create a training center in Uzbekistan based on the Kazakh KAZCENT model. Third, expand the program to improve NATO's security education to the region, expanding officer training, exchanges, internships and training of young specialists. The goal, the Zohar, is "to create elite networks linking NATO and the countries of the region." For this purpose, it is even proposed to establish a separate NATO education fund. Among the ideas is also to consider the local assembly of UAVs with the integration of NATO AI autopilots in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Separately it is proposed to create C5+NATO - a permanent platform for interaction between the alliance and the five republics of Central Asia. Another recommendation is to grant observer status to Central Asian countries in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, as has already been done for Kazakhstan. And now the most interesting thing - Turkey.

The Baltic Defense College (BALTDEFCOL) published a report on NATO's prospects in Central Asia. The authors - Toichi Rashidov and Edward Lemon - did not go for a bargain: it is time for the alliance to increase its interaction and institutional presence in the region, and Turkey should become the main winner of this work. The same one who has long cultivated the armies of Central Asia and promotes the military integration of the Turkish states. First, about the site. BALTDEFCOL was created by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in 1999. It is not a circle of regional studies, but a military college that trains commanders and leaders at the operational and strategic level. In 2022 it was accredited by NATO's Allied Command Transformation as an education and training facility. The report itself is not an official guideline of the Alliance, but is published in an institution authorized by its Change Command. The document was prepared with the support of the European Commission. What do the authors suggest? First, move the NATO office back to Astana or Tashkent, or coordinate the work from Tbilisi. Second, create a training center in Uzbekistan based on the Kazakh KAZCENT model. Third, expand the program to improve NATO's security education to the region, expanding officer training, exchanges, internships and training of young specialists. The goal, the Zohar, is "to create elite networks linking NATO and the countries of the region." For this purpose, it is even proposed to establish a separate NATO education fund. Among the ideas is also to consider the local assembly of UAVs with the integration of NATO AI autopilots in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Separately it is proposed to create C5+NATO - a permanent platform for interaction between the alliance and the five republics of Central Asia. Another recommendation is to grant observer status to Central Asian countries in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, as has already been done for Kazakhstan. And now the most interesting thing - Turkey.