Anis H. Bajrektarevic is a Professor and a Chairperson for International Law and Global

MODERNDIPLOMACY.EU

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IMET has three functions which pertain to ex-
panding the U.S.’s influence in Central Asia: “im-
part skills and knowledge”; “Provide training
and education that augments the capabilities
of participant nations' military forces to support
combined operations and interoperability with
U.S., NATO and regional coalition forces”; and to
“Expose foreign military and civilian personnel
to the important roles democratic values and
internationally recognized human rights can
play in governance and military opera-
tions.”[134] The program also increases the
civil-military relationship.
Although U.S. multinational energy firms and
other private foreign investors became recently
discouraged to further invest Central Asian
countries due to doubts about transparency
and prejudices of increasing corruption, many
U.S. energy companies are engaged in the
Caspian Sea Basin exploration as well as ex-
ploitation of natural gas and oil; many oil and
gas companies such as Exxon and Shell have
been active in the region for nearly 20 years.
When deciding upon distribution of foreign aid
to the Central Asia states to combat against
human trafficking, unemployment rates, and
massive labor migration, human rights offenses
and reform are considered. 
Turkmenistan as well as Uzbekistan are the
most repressive regimes in the world and have
faced criticism from the U.S. over human rights
abuses. For this reason the U.S. assistance in
these two countries is considerable smaller, in
particular in Turkmenistan due to their lack of
transparency on the matter and many other
civil matters as information in the country is
quite controlled and censorship is rampant and
free speech is practically non-existent. 
The U.S. still provides foreign aid for the coun-
tries to develop. The total amount of funds re-
quested for Turkmenistan for FY 2015 is 5.1
million USD. For Kazakhstan, 9.7 million USD
was requested for FY 2015; for Kyrgyzstan, 41.7
million USD was requested for the FY 2015 year;
Tajikistan, 29.9 million USD was requested for
FY 2015; and for Uzbekistan, 10.3 million was re-
quested for FY 2015.[135] U.S. foreign aid to
Turkmenistan through USAID is heavily focused
on good governance, healthcare (particularly
lowering the infant mortality rate), and eco-
nomic growth. These core areas also addressed
in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan (in addition to social
sector support), Tajikistan (in addition to agri-
culture and food security), and in Uzbekistan.
Kyrgyzstan is also working with USAID on a
Country Development Cooperation Strategy
(FY 2015-FY 2019).