DUSHANBE, February 3, 2015, Asia-Plus — The Latvian Presidency of the Council of the EU in association with the Institute for European Politics (Institut für Europäische Politik) in Berlin and the European Union Institute for Security Studies in Paris organized a conference entitled “EU and Central Asia Cooperation: Reality Checks, Lessons Learned and Ways Ahead” in Brussels on January 30.
The theme of the conference reportedly reflected one of the priority lines of action of the Latvian Presidency – promoting closer cooperation between the EU and Central Asia’s nations.
The conference took place at the time when the Council of the EU has launched the review process of the EU Strategy for Central Asia, which should be finalized by the end of Latvia’s Presidency.
The conference was opened by Andrejs Pildegovics, the State Secretary of the Foreign Ministry of Latvia and Helga Schmidt, Deputy Secretary General of the European External Action Service.
The event brought together representatives from EU member state governments, the Embassies of the Central Asian countries in Brussels, and international organizations, as well as experts from a number of well-known European, American and Central Asian research institutions and academia.
According to the Tajik Embassy in Brussels, the conference participants spoke in detail on the implementation of the EU Strategy in Central Asia at a bilateral as well as at regional level. There were suggested specific areas and ways for deepening cooperation between the European Union and the countries of the region in various areas. The participants discussed in detail the maintenance and further strengthening of regional security.
In his statement delivered at the conference, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Tajikistan to the European Union, Ambassador Rustam Soliyev, presented information on the current level of relations between Tajikistan and the European Union and expressed hope that the EU Strategy for Central Asia in new edition will take into account the current situation in the region and in the world, including the situation in Afghanistan, and it will contribute to sustainable economic development and addressing of regional problems.
