The 15th annual meeting of Deputy Foreign Ministers of Central Asia (CA) countries took place in Almaty. This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan.
According to the report, the meeting was held with the support of the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for the Countries of Central Asia.
“The meeting was dedicated to discussing contemporary challenges and threats to the security of the region, the efforts of the states of the region to stabilize the situation in Afghanistan, as well as regional cooperation in the field of water and energy resources,” follows from the publication.
First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Yerzhan Ashikbayev noted that the deepening of integration processes in the Central Asian countries remains an important priority of Kazakhstan’s foreign policy, especially in the context of the creation of the UN Regional Center for Sustainable Development Goals for the Central Asian countries and Afghanistan in Almaty.
Ashikbayev emphasized that the results of the 7th meeting of the CEHCA in Tashkent demonstrated growing interest in the “Central Asia Plus” format, which indicates political relevance and growing international subjectivity region.
A stable and prosperous Afghanistan, according to the Kazakh diplomat, remains one of the important foreign policy priorities of the Central Asian countries, which seek to develop trade, transport, logistics and expand humanitarian contacts with the Afghan government.
He noted that true integration in Central Asia involves the development of mechanisms for the use and conservation of water and energy resources, especially in the era of global climate change and the ongoing shallowing of large border basins.
In this In a sense, according to the Kazakh diplomat, the initiative of Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to develop a Central Asian Framework Convention on Water Use in order to harmonize national water strategies demonstrates Kazakhstan’s high interest in establishing regional mechanisms for the conservation and use of water resources.
Ashikbayev mentioned that today the region also faces challenges and threats in the field of digital security and the use of large data sets. Against this background, Kazakhstan’s calls for deepening cooperation in the field of use of artificial intelligence and the development of a draft Declaration on the responsible use of AI by Central Asian countries symbolize the desire to strengthen trust and ensure security in the exchange of data within the framework of joint regional digital projects, he emphasized.