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Many other actors are interested in working with Central Asia as well, including India, Japan, South Korea, and the US. To keep this chapter and the interactive geopolitical mapping in proportion, we have omitted some and combined other actors and relations into a single chapter.

First, Azerbaijan and Türkiye have increased their engagement with Central Asia. Both countries want to strengthen their connectivity with the region and beyond to form a bridge between Europe and Asia and participate in the TITR. Especially Azerbaijan seems to increasingly position itself as a Central Asian country while building closer relations with Kazakhstan in particular. Turkish and Azerbaijani engagement with Central Asia through the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) also bears a strong cultural element, as all Central Asian countries, except Tajikistan, are Turkic states and observer members of the OTS.

Second, Iran has also worked to strengthen its position in Central Asia. Due to its strategic location, Iran is interested in forming a land bridge between Central Asia and the South Caucasus, the Middle East, and South Asia.[123] Especially Tajikistan as a Persian-speaking country with a large number of Iranian people is a logical partner for Iran, with which it strengthened cooperation in defence after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.[124] However, this is a dual relationship that is occasionally strained, for instance, by Tajik accusations in the past that Iran fuelled the civil war in Tajikistan during the 1990s.[125] The Iranian conflict with Saudi Arabia also plays a role in the Iranian ambition to cooperate with Central Asia, in which Iran aims to bolster its status and prestige in the Muslim world.[126]

The increased attention for the region by Arab Gulf states and their large investments in the energy sector should be mentioned, too. The Gulf States’ expanded involvement makes sense in the context of their efforts to restrain Iran and Türkiye, two of their own regional adversaries.[127] States from the Arab Gulf also build mosques, and Saudi Arabia and Qatar promote Salafism and Wahhabism currents of Islam in the region.[128]