The main promoter is the Uzbek President Mirziyoyev. Security, Afghanistan and rights were the central themes of the meeting between the leaders of Central Asia and the European Union. Tashkent proposes the creation of an economic cooperation committee between the two regions.
Moscow () – The President of Uzbekistan, Šavkat Mirziyoyev, spoke during the summit held in Kazakhstan between the European Union and Central Asia, calling for greater integration between the two areas: “The regional and global situation has radically changed, today we need more active support from European partners for the integration processes of Central Asia”. He proposed studying the joint approval of a far-reaching political document, a “road map” to speed up the implementation of common strategies.
Mirziyoyev also insisted on coordinating the actions of special services and security watchdogs from Central Asia and Europe in order to exchange information to jointly fight today’s numerous threats. Referring specifically to the situation in Afghanistan, the Uzbek President expressed his concern over the worsening of the humanitarian situation in that country during the winter period, and called on the entire international community to help the Afghan people.
Another point addressed in the report concerns the economic relations between Uzbekistan and the EU: the formation of a “European Union-Central Asia” economic cooperation committee at the level of deputy prime ministers of all the governments involved is proposed. Uzbekistan “plans to expand the measures related to numerous changes”, and among them stands out “the absolute priority of legality, comprehensive support for civil society institutions, the guarantee of people’s rights and gender equality , freedom of expression and the affirmation of one’s own convictions”.
It was the first edition of the summit in this format. It was attended by the leaders of all interested countries (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, and was also attended by representatives of Azerbaijan and Afghanistan), as well as the President of the European Council, Charles Michel. On the eve of the meeting, four international humanitarian associations addressed Michel to ask him to address “critical issues” in the field of human rights during the agreement, especially with the presidents of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
On September 26 and 27, the joint meeting was held in Astana; On October 28, Michel traveled to Tashkent, where he confirmed with Mirziyoyev the commitments announced at the meeting with the other leaders of the region.
