Tariq Saeedi
In just over two weeks, on 12 December 2025, Ashgabat will host the high-level International Forum “Peace and Trust”, the flagship event marking the 30th anniversary of Turkmenistan’s permanent neutrality – a status uniquely recognized by the United Nations in 1995 and reaffirmed ever since.
The UN has declared 2025 the International Year of Peace and Trust at Turkmenistan’s initiative, and the forum is expected to draw heads of state, foreign ministers, and top dignitaries from dozens of countries.
Dedicated website of the event – www.neutrality.gov.tm
What makes this anniversary truly significant is not just Turkmenistan’s UN-recognized neutrality, but the broader reality of Central Asia. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan – while not formally neutral like Turkmenistan – have long pursued multi-vector foreign policies that are, in practice, a form of de facto neutrality: balancing relations with Russia, China, the West, Türkiye, and the Islamic world without joining any military bloc that would force them to choose sides.
In an era of sharpening great-power rivalry, the five Central Asian states have quietly become one of the world’s largest non-aligned spaces.
This creates an almost perfect ideological and strategic match with ASEAN.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations – now eleven strong with the full membership of Timor-Leste – has always placed neutrality and non-alignment at the very heart of its identity.
The 1971 Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality (ZOPFAN) declaration remains ASEAN’s compass.
Six of its members – Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam – belong to the Non-Aligned Movement and maintain no formal military alliances. The other five have defense ties (Philippines and Thailand with the US, Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei through the Five Power Defence Arrangements), yet the bloc as a whole fiercely guards its strategic autonomy and “ASEAN centrality.”
Both regions understand that true sovereignty today means refusing to be anyone’s proxy.
Economically, the complementarity is striking. ASEAN’s combined nominal GDP stands at approximately $4.17 trillion (about 3.6% of global GDP, and over $13 trillion in PPP terms), making it the world’s fifth-largest economy if treated as one entity. It dominates global trade in electronics, semiconductors, refined petroleum, palm oil, and garments – exporting around $1.9–2 trillion annually while running a healthy trade surplus.
Central Asia, rich in energy, cotton, metals, and rare earths, is actively diversifying trade routes through the Middle Corridor, Central Asia – Middle East Corridor, Lapis Lazuli Corridor, rail and road connectivity in all directions, and China–Central Asia pipelines. The shared commitment to neutrality means cooperation can be purely pragmatic, depoliticized, and win-win – exactly the spirit both regions want.
This is not wishful thinking.
Turkmenistan has already proposed the creation of a “Central Asia + ASEAN” dialogue format, an idea warmly received in Southeast Asia, especially with Malaysia assuming the ASEAN chairmanship in 2025.
The potential areas for partnership are numerous and exciting:
- Smart agriculture and food security – Combining Central Asia’s vast arable land and water challenges with ASEAN’s leadership in rice, palm oil, and agricultural tech to develop drought-resistant crops, precision farming, and neutral platforms for sharing seeds and know-how with the Global South – without sanctions or political strings attached.
- Alternative energy and green logistics – Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan’s enormous natural gas and renewable potential paired with ASEAN’s world-class solar, geothermal (Indonesia, Philippines) and biofuel expertise. Joint green hydrogen projects along the Middle Corridor–Southeast Asia routes would be game-changing.
- Digital economy, blockchain, and fintech – Neutral jurisdictions are perfect for experimenting with blockchain-based trade finance, CBDCs, and even regulated cryptocurrency frameworks. Imagine a Central Asia–ASEAN blockchain corridor for instant, low-cost remittances and supply-chain tracking.
- Telemedicine and health cooperation – Post-COVID, both regions proved they can deliver affordable, high-quality healthcare without Big Pharma dominance. Joint platforms for telemedicine linking Central Asian specialists with ASEAN hospital networks could serve millions.
- Logistics and soft infrastructure – Harmonized tariffs, mutual recognition of standards, AI-assisted customs clearance, simplified visas for businessmen, students, tourists, and medical patients. A “neutral visa facilitation zone” between the two regions would unleash grassroots ties overnight.
- Education and people-to-people links – Student exchanges, joint research centers on neutrality and peace-building, twin-city partnerships between Ashgabat and Bandar Seri Begawan, or Tashkent and Jakarta.
All of these can flourish precisely because neither side wants to drag the other into geopolitical games. Neutrality is not passivity – it is the ultimate strategic asset in a polarized world. It allows cooperation based on equality, mutual respect, and genuine mutual benefit, rather than subordination.
When the leaders gather in Ashgabat on 12 December 2025, they will not just be celebrating Turkmenistan’s remarkable thirty-year journey of peace. They will be laying the foundation for something bigger: a Eurasian partnership of neutrality stretching from the Caspian to the South China Sea, proving that countries do not need to choose sides to prosper together.
In a world on fire, neutrality is not indifference. It is the clearest path to real, lasting partnership. /// nCa, 27 November 2025