The Second Foreign Ministerial Meeting of the Strategic Dialogue "Central Asia – Gulf Cooperation Council" kicked off on 15 April in Tashkent.

Delegations from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Azerbaijan took part in the meeting.

The agenda of the events included the review of the progress in the implementation of the agreements reached within the framework of the First Summit of Central Asia and Gulf Cooperation Council held on 19 July 2023, in Jeddah, as well as the discussion of the development of further cooperation in political, security, trade, economic, investment, environmental, transport and communications, cultural and humanitarian spheres.

The participants also exchanged views on preparations for the next Summit of the Central Asian and Gulf Cooperation Council countries, to be held in Samarkand in 2025.

The meeting discussed the current international and regional agenda as well as a number of other topics.

Today, the states of Central Asia and the Gulf consider each other as reliable and long-term partners. All participants in the format are interested in expanding practical cooperation between the two regions in the political, trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian spheres.

An important basis for the development and intensification of interaction are the historical ties between the two regions. Since ancient times, the peoples of Central Asia and the Gulf have maintained close trade relations and had common values and traditions. Of course, the sacred religion of Islam is a powerful factor uniting our regions.

Uzbekistan’s relations with the Gulf states have reached a new level. Mutually beneficial cooperation is actively developing in all areas. The exchange of visits at the highest and highest levels has intensified, trade turnover with the GCC member countries is consistently growing, as is the number of joint projects being implemented. Among the key areas, it is worth noting the successful cooperation with such leading companies as ACWA Power, Masdar, Mubadala, TACA, Nebras Power, in partnership with which projects are being implemented for the construction of solar and wind stations with a total capacity of more than 15 gigawatts, as well as energy storage facilities.