Tajikistan’s capital, Dushanbe, began to prepare for hosting the Fifth Consultative Meeting of the Heads of State of Central Asia. The fifth Central Asian summit is scheduled to take place in the Tajik capital from September 14-15 this year.
Presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are expected to arrive in Dushanbe to participate in the meeting.
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: Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, then-Kyrgyz President Sooronbay Jeenbekov, and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon. It was decided that a second meeting would be scheduled for March 2019 in Tashkent.
But March 2019 came and went, the meeting delayed to April and then to the fall. In November 2019, the Central Asian leaders held their second meeting, this time in Tashkent and immediately after a CSTO summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. 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, Astana. 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.
The Fourth Consultative Meeting of the Heads of State of Central Asia took place at the Kyrgyz resort town of Cholpon-Ata on July 21, 2022 with Central Asian leaders’ pledge to boost further cooperation.
Besides, a regular meeting of the Council of Heads of Founding States of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS) is scheduled to take place in Tajik capital this week.
The International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS) was developed on March 23, 1993, by the ICWC to raise funds for the projects under Aral Sea Basin programs. The IFAS was meant to finance programs to save the sea and improve on environmental issues associated with the basin's drying.
A Steering Committee has been set up to make preparations for the Fifth Consultative Meeting of the Heads of State of Central Asia and the IFAS summit. The Steering Committee is led by Prime Minister Qohir Rasoulzoda and its members reportedly include heads of all ministries and agencies. Besides, the Summits Secretariat is functioning at the Foreign Ministry.
