Military spending in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia is soaring, a phenomenon that development officials attribute to regional conflicts such as the war in Ukraine, though experts doubt the increased spending will improve stability.
While Russia has been the dominant arms supplier to those countries for more than 30 years, other countries, including Turkey, China and the US, are now entering the market.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, military spending by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan last year was $1.8 billion. Figures from Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, which do not disclose information on military spending in their gross domestic product (GDP), were not included in the report.
Regional media reports said Kazakhstan’s military budget last year was 0.5 percent of the country’s estimated GDP of $259.7 billion. Kyrgyzstan’s military accounted for 1.5 percent of its estimated GDP of $13.9 billion, or $208.5 million, and Tajikistan’s was 1 percent of its estimated GDP of $12 billion, or $120 million.
Kamchibek Tashiev, deputy chairman of the Kyrgyz Cabinet of Ministers, which coordinates Kyrgyzstan's security forces, told a government meeting in July 2023 that since 2021, Kyrgyzstan has spent $1.3 billion to modernize its military.
He said most of the money was used to finance new, advanced weaponry. “We bought Bayraktar, Aksungur, Akinci, unmanned combat aerial vehicles that many other countries have not bought. We also bought equipment that improves our air defense system, Mi-8, Mi-17, helicopters,” he said.
Tense relations with neighboring Tajikistan have prompted the Kyrgyz government to start paying more attention to the military. The Kyrgyz Ministry of Defense's 2023 military doctrine states that the threat level posed by Kyrgyz-Tajik border tensions is very high. The tensions led to armed conflicts between the two countries in April 2021 and September 2022, resulting in civilian deaths and the displacement of thousands.
In May 2022, Iran opened a drone factory in Tajikistan, producing Ababil-2 reconnaissance and combat drones. Then in April, the Tajik government signed a $1.5 million deal with Turkey for the supply of an unknown number of Bayraktar attack drones.
In a December 2022 interview, Dushanbe-based political analyst Parviz Mullojanov said that in the “ongoing arms race” Tajikistan would likely purchase modern weapons. (ps/ab)
