GUUAM’

s common statement also warned against the dangerous spillover of “illegal activities which flourish in the first place in conflict zones.” That warning seems to reflect a special Uzbek concern. Tashkent has recently concluded–as have its neighbors Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan–that the continuing conflict in northern Afghanistan, rather than the Taliban authorities as such, is the main source of criminal activities that spill over into Central Asia. For this reason, Uzbekistan and its two neighbors openly disagree with Moscow’s and Tehran’s fueling of the Afghan war.