By Ben Aris In Samarkand The return of the Taliban has been the greatest threat to regional security and has cut Central Asia off from potentially very lucrative markets in Asia. There have been diplomatic efforts to normalise relations with the Taliban and both Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have already dropped their “terrorist state” designation, but progress is slow. Uzbekistan has been leading the effort and opened up a flourishing new trade centre on the border at Termez as a practical step to bringing the two countries closer as well as exporting electricity to Afghanistan, but problems pers…