The first meeting of the Team Europe Initiative (TEI) Working Group on Water, Energy, and Climate Change was held in Dushanbe on October 20, bringing together representatives from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
According to the Delegation of the European Union to Tajikistan, the meeting marked the launch of a coordinated regional effort to strengthen cooperation and investment in sustainable development sectors across Central Asia.
EU Ambassador to Tajikistan Radosław Darski said the initiative underscores the importance of collaboration.
“The water–energy–climate change nexus lies at the heart of sustainable development in Central Asia. The EU is proud to unite member states and financial institutions under the Global Gateway – Team Europe Initiative to promote regional cooperation and concrete investments, such as the Roghun project,” he said. “Achieving progress for our planet requires teamwork — no single actor can do this alone.”
Project manager and head of the TEI Technical Secretariat, Dr. Caroline Milow, noted that this was the first working group meeting with national partners.
“It’s an important opportunity to coordinate planned activities in water, energy, and climate change and to design a joint work plan for 2026,” she added.
During the meeting, participants discussed ongoing and future projects, set regional priorities, and drafted a work plan to be jointly implemented next year.
The discussions also laid the foundation for the upcoming TEI Steering Committee Meeting, to be held on November 24 in Tashkent, where the plan will be endorsed at the deputy minister level.
Officials from Central Asian ministries of foreign affairs, water, energy, and environment, as well as representatives of the EU, its member states, and international organizations, attended the session.
The Team Europe Initiative on Water, Energy, and Climate Change is part of the EU’s Global Gateway strategy, which aims to build sustainable, transparent, and high-standard infrastructure partnerships worldwide and address regional development challenges.
