The European Union – Central Asia Forum will be held in Bishkek on 5 November. It is the first platform of the European Union and Central Asia, which reflects and unifies the economic interests of the member-states.

The agenda of the Forum, which will be held on a level of the Prime Ministers of the Central Asian countries, is focused on such topic issues as the green recovery, digitalization and improvement of the business environment. The separate sessions will be aimed at discussion of energy, finances, tourism and other issues.

It is expected that the Forum will bring together not only the representatives of the Central Asia and EU, but also wider range of representatives of other countries. Further it will be held on the rotational system in different countries of Central Asia.

The European Union actively cooperates with the Central Asian Republics and has been supporting them since 1991. In 2007 Brussel adopted the first EU Strategy for Central Asia - preceding the Strategy 2019. The first document provided cooperation in various fields: from regional, environmental and energetic to cooperation on security, human rights and rule of law.

The new EU Strategy is focused on the inclusive approach to cooperation. Inclusiveness implies that cooperation is open to all countries in the region, as well as non-regional countries for which it is relevant. Another theme is sustainability, which is also mentioned in other new strategic documents of the EU. This refers to resilience to various old and new risks faced by the world as a whole and Central Asia.

The launch of the “Green Central Asia” Initiative by Germany within the framework of EU-Central Asia cooperation, which took place at the end of January 2020, is a significant first event in the implementation of the new EU Strategy for the region.

Ayjahan Ataballyeva