While West mulls engaging with the Taliban, Central Asia has been at it for years

If everything goes as planned, Afghanistan will within the coming decade be joined to Central Asia by gas pipelines, high-voltage power lines, and railroads.

Western countries are coming to terms with the need to engage with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Most of Central Asia has been doing it for years already.

Turkmenistan was laying out the red carpet for the Taliban even before Kabul fell in mid-August 2021.

A full six months before those events, a group of Taliban officials travelled to Ashgabat to voi…