The leaders of five Central Asian nations today gathered at the Cholpon-Ata resort town, Kyrgyzstan for their fourth consultative meeting.
Radio Liberty says they will discuss economic and political cooperation after recent unrest in the region and moves by Moscow to increase Russia's influence in the former Soviet republics.
This summit is the first meeting of heads of state in the region since Russia — which is not a participant in the meeting — launched its so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24.
It is to be noted that previous summits have produced just general agreements on cooperation and nothing else.
According to Radio Liberty, analysts say this year's edition is "very important" for Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, all of which have seen social unrest in the past two years, as well as Turkmenistan.
"I think Central Asian countries are now realizing that they would be stronger if they worked together, especially in their relations with Russia, China, and the United States…I think the war in Ukraine has demonstrated…how difficult it is to cooperate with Russia…The countries in the [Central Asian] region feel themselves very vulnerable," Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, president of the Central Eurasian Studies Society, told RFE/RL.
Many experts who talked to RFE/RL reportedly said they believe the five presidents will also touch on such issues as the Taliban's takeover in neighboring Afghanistan and this year’s social unrests in the region.
Following summits in 2018, 2019 and 2021, the 2022 meeting comes amid a great number of regional difficulties and concerns.
The idea that the states of Central Asia should have a mechanism to meet together without an external power managing the affair is not new. The then Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev reiterated calls for the integration of Central Asian countries as a way to jointly ensure the security and prosperity of the region on November 13, 2017, while answering questions at the 3rd session of the Astana Club, a Kazakhstani government-backed international forum aimed at discussing Eurasian issues. Kazakhstan proposed hosting a Central Asian leaders' summit in Astana in October 2017.
The first Central Asia summit took place in March 2018. Except not everyone showed up: the then Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov skipped the summit, instead making a state visit to Kuwait, followed by a visit to the United Arab Emirates. But then-Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev hosted the other three: Mirziyoyev, then-Kyrgyz President Sooronbay Jeenbekov, and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon. It was decided that a second meeting would be held in 2019 in Tashkent.
The Central Asian leaders held their second meeting in Tashkent in November 2019, immediately after a CSTO summit in Kyrgyzstan’s capital, Bishkek. Once again, there was a face missing: Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who had come into power earlier that year following Nazarbayev’s resignation, had attended the CSTO summit in Bishkek but then returned to the Kazakh capital, Nur-Sultan. Instead, Nazarbayev attended the Tashkent meeting. Jeenbekov and Rahmon attended, as did Berdimuhamedov.
The third consultative meeting of the heads of state of Central Asia took place in Avaza, on the Caspian shore of Turkmenistan in early August 2021.
