The intensification of linkages between the different constituents of the Asian geopolitical space is a defining marker of the Asian century. The continent is experiencing a significant rise in intra-regional trade while witnessing the progressive integration of Asia-wide markets for services and capital, with correlated increases in the number of people moving across its different sub-regions.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have played a central role in the advancement of these processes: the establishment of multifaceted relationships with East Asian partners, China and Japan in particular; the consolidation of strong linkages with South Asia, supported by large numbers of expatriates from the Indian subcontinent currently living in the Gulf; and the relatively slower progress experienced by the GCC countries’ presence in Southeast Asia.

There is one noticeable exception to this norm: the footprint of the GCC countries is limited when we direct our attention onto a further, yet by no means less important, Asian constituency, namely post-Soviet Central Asia.

This chapter explores the Gulf-Central Asia partnership, pursuing a two-fold analytical agenda: first, it will sketch out the factors that have impeded the development of these relations; and second, it will identify potential avenues for future cooperation. Structural economic incompatibility and political sensitivities may have trumped geographic proximity, setting apparently insurmountable obstacles to the establishment of functioning relationships between the two regions. It is the gap between these relationships’ potential and their actual progress that ultimately emerges as the central determinant for the series of recommendations outlined in the conclusion.

Central Asia's economic appeal is primarily, yet not exclusively, located in the extractive sector. The region hosts two of Eurasia's key hydrocarbon producers: Kazakhstan – with proven oil reserves that rank 11th in the world – and Turkmenistan – which is reported to be the fourth largest holder of natural gas reserves globally.

The possibility to collaborate in the exploration and development of such substantive reserves may represent a primary driver for GCC interests in the region.

The commercial sector is a further area of potential convergence for GCC-Central Asia collaboration. Here, the emphasis need not be exclusively on the development of individual trade links between the Gulf states and the Central Asian economies – which, at the end of 2018, featured a cumulative GDP of $285.64 billion, of which more than 60% is produced in Kazakhstan– but also on the development of trade infrastructure and legislation to facilitate commercial interaction between the two Asian sub-regions.