Mirziyoyev has been pursuing a less autocratic path than his predecessor, Islam Karimov, seeking to reform and liberalise the country. It was he who initiated in 2017 the idea of holding regular meetings of the presidents of the five Central Asian countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The meeting was also attended by Kazakhstan\u2019s former President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kyrgyzstan\u2019s President Sooronbai Jeenbekov, Tajikistan\u2019s President Emomali Rahmon and Turkmenistan\u2019s President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, who had skipped the previous summit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first summit was hosted by Kazakhstan in its capital Nur-Sultan, then called Astana, in March 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only a couple of years ago, a summit of the five Central Asia countries would have been absolutely unthinkable. But the leaders came together on Thursday (15 March) and decided to hold such meetings annually, always at the same time of the year, which is a major holiday in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the last summit, the leaders decided to meet annually ahead of the Norouz (Nowruz) holiday, which falls between 20 March and 23 March and marks the spring equinox. The meeting was, however, delayed to this fall, presumably because of the sudden\u00a0resignation\u00a0of Kazakhstan\u2019s first President, Nursultan Nazarbayev on 19 March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2017, Nazarbayev initiated constitutional reform aimed at a more balanced power-sharing, transferring some presidential prerogatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, perceived as Nazarbayev\u2019s political \u201cchild,\u201d was elected this summer with an overwhelming majority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tokayev signed a decree on 21 October confirming that high-level appointments such as cabinet ministers, heads of various security forces and regional governors are subject to consultation with the chairman of the Kazakh Security Council, the position Nazarbayev currently occupies for life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From the early stage of its post-Soviet transition, Kazakhstan has consolidated strong state power to avoid chaos. Today, as the country is considered successful at home and internationally, this centralisation is being reduced and tribute is being paid to the one person who steered the country during the last 30 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite his resignation, Nazarbayev represented Kazakhstan at the meeting of Central Asian state leaders. At the proposal of Tajikistan, Nazarbayev was chosen as the honorary chairman of the consultative meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The five former Soviet republics form part of Russia\u2019s sphere of interests and the lingua franca<\/em> of the meetings is Russian. The summit was officially labelled a \u201cconsultative meeting,\u201d in an obvious effort to highlight that Moscow would be present at events with higher diplomatic rank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTo underline, our rapprochement and greater cooperation in the region is a desired and irreversible process,\u201d said Uzbekistan\u2019s Mirziyoyev in his opening statement, according to a transcript. \u201cIt is based on a strong political choice, has deep historical preconditions and is not directed against anyone\u2019s interests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The point was also reinforced in the joint statement adopted after the meeting. \u201cPolitical dialogue and positive processes of inter-state rapprochement are open and constructive, and are not directed against the interests of third parties\u201d reads the text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was also made clear that the meeting is not a sign of institutional integration. \u201cI should, however, like to draw attention to the fact that holding meetings of Central Asia heads of state in the format of consultations is not a reason for speculation about the creation of any kind of new regional organisation,\u201d said Uzbekistan\u2019s Mirziyoyev.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Kyrgyz and Tajik leaders travelled to Tashkent from the Security Council session of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), the summit of Russia-led military-alliance held the day before (28 November). Uzbekistan has joined and left the CSTO twice, providing little explanation for its last exit in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Afghanistan, which alongside Serbia holds observer status at the organisation, was an important agenda item of both meetings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cStates of Central Asia intend to continue comprehensive efforts to include Afghanistan in regional trade, economic and infrastructural projects, which should contribute to the advancement of the peace process,\u201d said the Central Asian leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Afghanistan borders Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, and is perceived as a security risk by the states of Central Asia, which have been actively voicing their concerns internationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Environmental preservation and water management have also taken centre stage at the summit. The use of water resources has historically been a source of tensions but countries now prefer to consult among themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n European Council President Donald Tusk did a tour of three Central Asia countries last week, including Tajikistan, where the melting Pamir Glaciers illustrate the impact of climate change and the difficulties of water management in this part of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Central Asia is facing increasingly severe environmental challenges. The combined impact of climate change, which has started to reduce water flows by shrinking the glaciers that feed Central Asian rivers, and rapid population growth is likely to have implications for economic development, security and migration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI propose to unite our efforts to develop and implement in Central Asia mutually beneficial mechanisms of compensation for the accumulation of water resources,\u201d said Kyrgyzstan\u2019s President Jeenbekov. \u201cWe expect that the costs related to the accumulation, storage, management and delivery will be appropriately compensated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kyrgyzstan, alongside Tajikistan, is an \u201cupstream\u201d country, with 45% of the region\u2019s water resources formed in the glaciers on its territory. The EU is\u00a0offering\u00a0help to the region to turn these challenges into opportunities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mirziyoyev has been pursuing a less autocratic path than his predecessor, Islam Karimov, seeking to reform and liberalise the country. It was he who initiated in 2017 the idea of holding regular meetings of the presidents of the five Central Asian countries. The meeting was also attended by Kazakhstan\u2019s former President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kyrgyzstan\u2019s President Sooronbai Jeenbekov, Tajikistan\u2019s President Emomali… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3906"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3907,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3906\/revisions\/3907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}