Crossroads Asia | Diplomacy | Central Asia

Central Asia’s Leaders Gather in Turkmenistan for 8th Consultative Meeting

Grand outcomes aren’t necessary at every meeting to prove the value of a format. But at a certain point, the lowest hanging fruit has been picked.

On October 8, Turkmenistan hosted a flurry of region meetings in Avaza, including the 8th Consultative Meeting of the Heads of State of Central Asia and Azerbaijan, and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Council of Heads of State, as well as related foreign minister-level meetings. 

According to Turkmen state media, Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov laid out “five key objectives,” which included “building the potential of the six-party format,” ensuring lasting peace and stability in the region, joint efforts “to transform Central Asia and Azerbaijan into key transport, logistics, energy, and industrial hubs on the continent in the East-West and North-South directions,” creating the conditions for “accelerated technological growth and the active implementation of artificial intelligence,” and finally, expanding “cultural, humanitarian, educational, and civilizational ties.”

These were all vaguely, and inoffensively, stated, as per Turkmen diplomatic style.

Remarks from Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev were more ambitious and concrete – or at least more readily accessible. Mirziyoyev remarked on the atmospheric change in Central Asian regional diplomacy. He pointed to the completion of the Treaty on Friendship, Good-Neighborliness and Cooperation for the Development of Central Asia in the 21st Century. The treaty was signed during the fourth Consultative Meeting of Central Asian Leaders in 2022 by the presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. It took until 2025 for Tajikistan to sign on, and Turkmenistan only did so earlier this year, in July during a visit by Kazakh Foreign Minister Yermek Kosherbayev to Ashgabat.

Mirziyoyev did not remark on the gap between 2022 and 2026 for all five countries to sign onto the treaty; he also didn’t address the fact that while Azerbaijan has joined the grouping – and is taking over as chair – it isn’t a party to the treaty. 

This is, perhaps, by design. Mirziyoyev did remark that “we do not seek to create cumbersome structures.”

The friendship treaty codifies this position, baking in possibilities while committing to little beyond words and consultation. The treaty lays out commitments to cooperate across a wide range of areas and build relations “on the basis of mutual respect, equality, understanding and comprehensive consideration of each other’s interests.” 

But it contains hints of possible future pathways. For example, its Article 5 states that the parties “shall provide each other with comprehensive support and mutual assistance in matters of preventing threats to their independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.” It goes on to stipulate that should a situation arise that “poses a threat to the security, sovereignty and territorial integrity” of one of the parties, “appropriate consultations” may be held bilaterally or within the consultative format “in order to determine measures that will contribute to the effective prevention of the threat that has arisen.” That’s a long-winded diplomatic way of saying that should a crisis develop, the Central Asian states may act together to confront it. 

Of course, history – and the track records of other regional groupings such as the Shanghai Cooperation........

© The Diplomat