Dear colleagues!

    I am glad to welcome all participants of our today's meeting.

    In addition to my esteemed colleagues, I would like to thank the President of Kyrgyzstan, esteemed Sadyr Nurgozhoevich, for the warm welcome and excellent organization of the summit.

    I am also glad to see the esteemed Serdar Gurbanguliyevich taking part in the consultative meeting.

    Today, as often happened, thanks to the dialogue held in this format, we have managed to strengthen united and good-neighbourly relations, to create a completely new constructive cooperation in our enterprise.

    We are consistently solving the difficult task of ensuring the security and sustainability of the socio-economic development of Central Asia.

    In this context, many barriers have been removed, there are conditions for the free movement of our citizens, the implementation of active cultural and network exchanges. A favorable climate has formed, and the growth of mutual trade and investment has increased.

    In the last five years alone, the volume of trade within the region has doubled.

    We have also started implementing joint industrial cooperation projects, creating efficient value chains, and developing transport and energy infrastructure.

    And most importantly, all positive changes are being felt by our fraternal peoples.

    Dear colleagues!

    I support the opinions and opinions expressed today on the difficult situation directly affecting our region in the world.

    Rapid transformational processes are observed, the consequences of which are difficult to predict. We are seeing a growing gap in communication and trust around the world.

    As a result of the aggravation of crisis situations in the global economy, our countries are faced with the problem of disruption of traditional supply chains, imports are increasing due to inflation, and risks to food and energy security are multiplying. Under these conditions, the need to coordinate and increase the effectiveness of multilateral cooperation within the format of consultative meetings is growing.

    I want to emphasize that the peace, stability and well-being of the entire region depend on our determination and readiness to take decisive measures to protect the common interests of Central Asia.

    Dear heads of state!

    In order to further strengthen multifaceted relations and develop practical regional cooperation, we consider it expedient to focus our common efforts on the following important areas.

    The first is the economic direction. The analysis shows that, despite the positive growth rates, the potential of trade and economic cooperation between our countries remains not fully utilized.

    According to various estimates, today the share of trade within the region accounts for 5 to 10% of the total trade turnover between our countries.

    In this regard, we propose to actively introduce new forms and mechanisms to stimulate mutual trade.

    Among them is the creation of a system of trade zones in the border areas, where the rules are unified and procedures for the delivery of goods are simplified.

    In this regard, it is important to understand and support efforts to replace expensive and not always high-quality import substitution from third countries with products from our own manufacturers.

    Another important task is to promote joint projects of industrial cooperation.

    Our business circles are interested in creating production capacities, using the competitive advantages and complementarity of the economies of the countries of the region.

    In this regard, the development of common approaches to the formation of a space for localization and import substitution in Central Asia on the basis of national industrial development programs is of great importance.

    I propose to pay special attention to the issues of digitalization of economic sectors. This allows you to reduce the cost of production and ensure its competitiveness.

    In order to further develop trade and economic ties, we propose to make wider use of the potential of interregional direct cooperation and organize an annual Forum of Central Asian Regions.

    At the same time, in order to increase the overall attractiveness of the region in the investment sphere, it is necessary to strive to create a single favorable business climate.

    Dear friends!

    I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to you for your support of the special resolution of the UN General Assembly recently adopted at the initiative of Uzbekistan on strengthening interdependence between Central and South Asia.

    We believe that as a continuation of this initiative, it is important to develop a roadmap to promote alternative transport corridors to enter the markets of India, Pakistan and China.

    I also support my colleagues' proposals for food security measures.

    In this sense, I consider it important to jointly develop a comprehensive system of guaranteed provision of the population with a wide range of food products produced in sufficient quantities in our countries. These are, first of all, cereals, fat-and-oil and fodder crops, protein and processed fruits and vegetables, meat and dairy products and many other products.

    In these matters, we must, first of all, proceeding from the common interests of Central Asia, establish systematic work.

    The second direction is multilateral cooperation in the field of ecology.

    I express my sincere gratitude for the support of our initiative to adopt the Green Agenda for Central Asia program.

    Within the framework of this program, we propose to focus on the implementation of international obligations to ensure the economy without gas IP; accelerated development of alternative energy, first of all, obtaining electricity from water, sun and wind, organizing mutual supplies of electricity; widespread introduction of water-saving and environmentally friendly technologies, as well as the rational use of water resources.

    It must be admitted that, unfortunately, we are far behind the leading regions of the world in matters of “green development”.

    In order to ensure the competitiveness of our countries in the long term, it is necessary to instruct our governments to prepare a specific action plan for the implementation of the program that we are adopting today.

    In the humanitarian direction, I propose to strengthen joint work on the implementation of cooperation programs in the field of culture, education, sports and tourism, as well as in the field of in-depth study of our common history. Undoubtedly, all this will serve to further rapprochement between our fraternal peoples.

    We propose to alternately hold the Central Asian Festival of Culture, Art and Cinema in our countries.

    I want to pay special attention to the possibilities of expanding our cooperation in the field of tourism.

    We must actively stimulate intra-regional tourism by developing special tourist routes and products, and conducting general PR campaigns.

    To this end, we propose to create a joint expert group to prepare specific proposals for increasing mutual tourist flows.

    Separately, I want to dwell on the fruitful results of the Central Asian Youth Forum, held in May of this year in Tashkent.

    We were once again convinced of the similarity of views and aspirations of our young people, their enormous intellectual potential. We must continue to provide full support to their cutting-edge initiatives, creativity and start-up projects.

    Before our next meeting, we propose to prepare a multilateral agreement on the general directions of youth policy.

    Dear friends!

    The security sphere is a strategic direction of our regional cooperation.

    I would like to emphasize that regional security is indivisible and, above all, depends on how effectively our partnership is established.

    In this sense, we must continue to strengthen our practical cooperation in the fight against such traditional threats as extremism and terrorism, organized crime and drug trafficking.

    The new risks associated with the ever-increasing illegal activity on the Internet require our special attention.

    Today, there are no borders in the way of these threats - they penetrate through mobile phones.

    Unfortunately, the recent tragic events in Uzbekistan have once again confirmed the presence of destructive forces that are trying to frustrate our plans and create an unstable situation in our region.

    In this regard, we support the proposal to organize regular consultations of the heads of the security councils and special services of the countries of the region in these areas.

    Continuing our close cooperation to help ensure long-term peace in Afghanistan and its social and economic reconstruction must remain a top priority for us.

    We, as the closest neighbors of this country, should be primarily interested in stability on this earth. How this problem will be perceived by the international community largely depends on us.

    We are also committed to the active development of trade relations with this country, its involvement in the economic processes in our region, the expansion of humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people, and the promotion of important social and infrastructure projects.

    Dear colleagues!

    The most important result of today's summit is undoubtedly the adoption of a significant package of documents aimed at strengthening relations of friendship, good neighborliness and cooperation for the sake of peace and sustainable development of Central Asia.

    Joining the opinion of colleagues, I express confidence that the results of the consultative meeting will serve to strengthen the strategic partnership and trust     between our countries, give a powerful impetus to the promotion of joint programs and projects for practical cooperation.

    Thank you for your attention.