The Central Asian countries are jointly designing five-sided interstate document on friendship, good-neighborliness and cooperation for the development of Central Asia in the twenty-first century. The statement came from Uzbek foreign minister Abdulaziz Kamilov in an interview with the local newspaper “Pravda Vostoka”.
The agreement was initiated by the first President of Kazakhstan Nazarbayev during the Consultative summit of the Central Asian heads of state in Tashkent in November 2019.
Nazarbayev proposed that this fundamental political document would fix the fundamental principles and goals of interaction in the region, as well as define the principle of mutual respect for the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the five countries.
The need for comprehensive cooperation and close integration has been repeatedly stressed by Ashgabat. “Turkmenistan is firmly committed to the development and strengthening of the brotherly and good-neighborly relations with all Central Asian countries. We clearly see the potential and prospects for our cooperation in the fields of politics and security, economy and trade, ecology, science, culture and education,” President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said at the summit in Tashkent.
The Turkmen leader called constructivism, a spirit of joint work, an understanding of the commonality and indivisibility of the destinies of fraternal peoples and nations, and a determination to achieve jointly the necessary tasks are the defining factors in relations between the Central Asian countries.
In the final Joint statement of Tashkent summit, the five leaders stressed that “the activation of regional cooperation in the fields of politics, security, stability and sustainable development in the region meets the core interests of the peoples of the Central Asian countries, promote bigger consolidation of brotherly ties among them, serve for full-scale realization of the enormous economic and civilization potential of Central Asia.” ///nCa, 27 August 2020