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The 1991 accession to independence has been a surprising and traumatic event for the new Republics of Central Asia. The disapparence of the Soviet political and economic system has not only produced a socio-economic crisis in the region but has also questioned the ways the West has approached this region of the world. In fifteen years the relations between the West and Central Asia have gone through different phases : « discovery », and then « disillusion » and disengagement. Since 2005 international cooperation is progressively marginalized and actors such as China, Russia or India are becoming the key actors for the development of the region.