Central Asia is a consolidated actor, devoted to collaborate

The Consultative Meeting confirmed the desire of the leaders of the Central Asian states to continue bolstering political consolidation and shared solidarity, to take on the duty of addressing issues on the regional agenda jointly and on their own, to show unity in overcoming threats to regional stability and security, and to adopt a coordinated and unified stance in their dealings with actors outside the region.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the president of Uzbekistan, remarked that Central Asia is now universally acknowledged as a single entity with international subjectivity. This, he claimed, "is demonstrated by the approval of 8 UN resolutions since 2017 on significant Central Asian cooperation and development issues, as well as the formation of more than 10 "Central Asia Plus" formats.

In this respect, the President of Uzbekistan called “to develop common approaches to joint work within these formats at the level of foreign ministers.” The president of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, also underlined the importance of “common or maximally similar positions demonstrating the solidarity and unity of the states of the region.”

Emomali Rahmon, President of Tajikistan, in response, emphasized the significance of the “unity of Central Asia" and urged the need to take more active steps towards integration within the region, including developing and making specific proposals for the joint development of Central Asia available to partners, including within the framework of the "Central Asia Plus" format.

Undoubtedly, the strengthening of political consolidation, coordination, and coherence of activities would allow Central Asian states to "protect and promote the region's common interests in the world" even more effectively, noted Sadyr Japarov, leader of Kyrgyz Republic.

At the same time, it is crucial to emphasize that the Central Asian states demonstrate the region's openness to cooperation with extra-regional countries, international and regional organizations, and their willingness
to rely on international law norms and principles and to firmly integrate the region into the international community as a responsible subject
of international relations. And the world community supports this.

This is demonstrated by the invitation to the summit of Azerbaijani President I. Aliyev, head of the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia K. Imnadze and the address to the participants of the meeting by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

The enormous number of tangible ideas proposed during the Consultative Meeting attests to the Central Asian governments' determination to begin a new phase of cooperation. They not only represent a similar view of risks, problems, and opportunities, but they also complement and mutually reinforce each other, providing a solid foundation for their practical implementation.

Akramjon Nematov,

first deputy director of the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan