nCa Analysis
The pith of the recent inter-regional and intra-regional formats of partnership in Central Asia is simply impressive.
While it contributes solidly to the space for peace and progress, it also creates bulwarks against any negative influences of the prevailing geopolitical situations from spilling over into the region.
In the past few days, the GCC and Central Asia had a ministerial meeting in Tashkent, the presidents of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan met in Dushanbe, the presidents of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan met in Astana, Turkmenistan hosted the 38th meeting of the OSJD, and Turkmen mission at the UN in New York hosted a ministerial meeting of the Group of Friends of Sustainable Transport.
GCC-Central Asian Ministerial Meeting held in Tashkent on 15 April 2024, was attended by 12 countries – Qatar, Uzbekistan, UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan.
In the joint statement, the GCC-CA countries underlined several points, including:
- Commitment to sustainable and forward-looking partnership based on common values and mutual interests
- Creation of conditions for regional integration
- Promotion of trade and investments between the two regions with due regard to ensuring sustainable supply chains, transport and transit connection, food, energy and water resources
- Mutual support in the framework of the Islamic Organization for Food Security
- Creation of effective mechanisms for cooperation in the fields of transport connectivity, infrastructure, innovation, artificial intelligence, sustainable and circular economy, digitalization, smart agriculture, nano- and biotechnologies, in accordance with the GCC-Central Asia Joint Action Plan (2023-2027)
- Greater cooperation in IT and hi-tech
- The need to develop connected transport routes between the two regions, building strong logistics and trade networks and developing efficient systems to enable product exchanges – within this, Trans-Afghan railroad, Central Asia – Gulf connection, China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railroad, transport and energy corridor Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan, Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (Middle Corridor)
Iran did not attend because it is not a part of Central Asia or Middle East but it is obvious that any initiatives between Central Asia and Middle East would need Iran as a bridge territory if not as a partner.
The meeting between President Tokayev of Kazakhstan and President Japarov of Kyrgyzstan in Astana on 19 April led to the signing of several documents including the Treaty on Deepening and Expanding Allied Relations between the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz R.epublic.
The meeting between President Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan and President Rahmon of Tajikistn in Dushanbe on 18 April 2024 also resulted in the signing of the Treaty on Allied Relations
Backgrounder: Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan already have such treaty between themselves. It came into force in December 2023 after ratification. On 6 February 2024, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan announced that they had moved forward to a final settlement to end decades of acrimonious disputes by agreeing on about 90% of border delimitation. In December 2023, the Kyrgyz president said that the relations between Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan had reached a new level of strategic partnership. In May 2023, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan signed declaration on deepening the strategic partnersip. In March 2024, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan announced to focus on further deepening the strategic partnership. In October 2023, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan vowed to further strengthen the strategic partnership.
On 16 April 2024, the UN mission of Turkmenistan in New York hosted the First Ministerial Meeting of the Group of Friends of Sustainable Transport.
In addition to the representatives from the member countries of the Group of Friends of Sustainable Transport, the participants included “Türkmendeňizderýaýollary” [Turkmen marine and river ways] agency Batyr Annaev, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Li Junhua, Special Envoy for Road Safety Jean Todt, SLOCAT Partnership – Maruxa Cardama, Turkic Investment Fund – Baghdad Amreyev, International Road Transport Union – Martin Marmy, International Center for Transport Diplomacy – Igor Runov, and Research institutes and academic circles.
The meeting marked the inauguration of the Group’s Advisory Council. It was formed in 2023 and Martin Marmy of IRU is its chairman.
The meeting also adopted a Final Declaration that defines the legal basis for the Group’s activities, its goals, format, and methods of operation.
Junhua Li, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs said during the meeting that because of two UN resolutions spearheaded by Turkmenistan in 2023, the 26 November has been declared as the World Sustainable Transport Day and the UN Decade on Sustainable Transport will begin in 2026.
From 15 to 19 April 2024, Turkmenistan hosted the 38th of the OSJD (Organization for Cooperation of Railways). The participants included Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, Belarusian Railways, CJSC “MAV Hungarian State Railways”, Vietnam Railway Group of Companies, JSC “Georgian Railway”, JSC “National Company “Kazakhstan Temir Zholy”, State Corporation “Chinese Railways”, Railways of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Korean National Railway Corporation KORAIL, SE “Kyrgyz Temir Zholu National Company”, Ulaanbaatar Railway JSC, JSC “Polish State Railways”, JSC “Russian Railways”, Railways of the Slovak Republic, SUE “Rohi ohani Tojikiston”, Agency “Turkmendemiryollary” (“Turkmen Railways”), Uzbekistan Temir Yullari JSC (Uzbek Railways), Czech Railways JSC, and Estonian Railway JSC.
The meeting was also attended by the representatives of the OSJD affiliated enterprises: Beijing Jiaotong University (People’s Republic of China), SIGIS Ltd. (Republic of Latvia), “Far Eastern Shipping Company” PJSC (FESCO) (Russian Federation), Eurosib SPb-TS JSC (Russian Federation), “Post of Russia” JSC (Russian Federation), Gepard Express SE (Czech Republic), “United transport and logistic company – Eurasian railway Alliance” JSC (“UTLC ERA” JSC).
The Conference decided to grant the status of an affiliated enterprise in OSJD to the following companies: East Express LLC (Moscow, Russian Federation); Shenzhen Dayang Co., Ltd. (Shenzhen, China); “Association of Kazakhstan Freight Rail Carriers” Self-Regulatory Organisation (Astana, Republic of Kazakhstan); “New Land Grain Corridor” (Moscow, Russian Federation).
The Ashgabat Declaration adopted at the end of the conference reiterated the resolve to continue providing the railway transportation services in an efficient and transparent manner. They addressed the issues related to economic, information, scientific, technical and environmental aspects of railway transport, developing measures to increase the competitiveness of railway transport in relation to other modes of transport, cooperation in the field of railway operation and technical issues related to the further development of international railway transport transportation; as well as cooperation with other international organizations dealing with railway transport issues.
The OSJD member railways account for more than 28% of the world railway trackage and above 40% of the world cargo movement by railway.
On 16 April 2024, a meeting was held in Ashgabat between Asset Asavbayev, Secretary General of the TRACECA Permanent Secretariat, and Mammetkhan Chakiyev, Director General of the Agency for Transport and Communications under the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan.
They discussed the efforts to improve the multimodal transport across the region and the need for better linkage in the transport infrastructure of the Caspian and Black Sea members of TRACECA.
The issue of appointing a permanent TRACECA National Secretary in Turkmenistan was discussed.
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The GCC-CA commitments we have mentioned earlier in this analysis are just some of the many things on which the Gulf countries and Central Asia agreed to work together. This is inter-regional integration.
They are preparing to hold the GCC-CA summit next year. Hopefully, some of the commitments made during the ministerial meeting would be in motion by then.
The GCC-CA are clearly ready to move toward smart integration, with emphasis on transport and transit solutions. The purpose is to ensure a connected world. An unbiased connectivity is kind of protection against natural or manmade economic shocks.
The treaties of allied relations between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are also in the realm of integration. It is intra-regional integration.
The meeting of the Group of Friends of Sustainable Transport, hosted by the UN mission of Turkmenistan, and the meeting of OSJD, hosted by Turkmenistan in Ashgabat, are both key events in the direction of streamlining the connectivity solutions at the global level. This is an important element in smart integration.
The interaction between Turkmenistan and TRACECA is also relevant in the augmentation of connectivity solutions across the Eurasian landmass.
Moreover, Turkmenistan opened on 17 April 2024 the second section of the Ashgabat-Turkmenabat highway, a major contribution toward inter-regional connectivity and corridors.
The processes for smart economic integration at the inter-regional and intra-regional level have picked speed. /// nCa, 22 April 2024