Tourism as a factor of rapprochement between Central Asia, the USA, the European Union and Ukraine in recent history

The purpose of this article is to study the prospects for cooperation between the Central Asian states, the United States of America and the European Union in the tourism sector in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The methodological basis of the study is the principles of objectivity, historicism, and axiology.Depending on the research tasks, both universal methods of scientific knowledge and methods specific to specific sciences were used, including methods of analysis, synthesis, deductive, historical and chronological, synchronous, geopolitical, and civilizational approach. Scientific novely. The author analyzes the place of tourism as a factor of “soft power” in the process of rapprochement between the United States and the European Union with the states of the Central Asian region at the present stage in the context of the Russian Federation’s large-scale aggression against Ukraine. Conclusions. The Russian-Ukrainian war, despite its geographical remoteness from the region under study, has contributed to the diversification of the foreign policy orientations of Central Asian states. Not wanting to turn into satellites of the People’s Republic of China or the Russian Federation, and given the need to overcome the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic for national economies, the states of the region have taken important steps towards rapprochement with democratic Western countries. Tourism is one of the main areas of cooperation. In order to develop it, the Euro-Atlantic community has initiated a number of programs designed to promote the development of the tourism sector in Central Asian countries. Given the changing priorities of the Central Asian states for Ukraine, strengthening ties in the tourism sector with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan may become a promising area for restoring the national tourism industry after the end of a full-scale war.