Central Asia and Central Europe launching new format of cooperation
On 27 February, Budapest hosted the first meeting in the format of “Visegrad four and Central Asian five”, marking the start of a new vector in the multidimensional cooperation Europe-Central Asia.
The Hungarian capital brought together representatives of Visegrad group member countries - the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia, as well as the foreign ministers of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, deputy foreign Ministers of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. On behalf of Turkmenistan, the forum was attended by the Ambassador to Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia Silapberdi Nurberdiyev.
The agenda of the meeting, initiated by Budapest, has been determined by the motto of the Hungarian presidency in quadrilateral union - the “V4 connects”, meaning a focus on establishing friendly and close economic ties with countries outside the EU.
“A bridge between the Visegrad Countries and Central Asia needs to be built so that mutually beneficial cooperation between the two areas may be achieved in the fields of politics, economy and security,” said Hungarian minister of foreign affairs and trade Peter Szijjarto, having described the supposed scope of the interregional partnership.
According to him, abundant reserves of raw materials in the region can lay the foundation of interaction with the CA countries, which are able to play a key role in the diversification of the European energy supply in the near future.
In addition, significant hydropower resources in this part of the Asian continent open a wide space for a mutually beneficial investment involvement of Central European companies in the water sector. In this context, Hungary and other Central European countries, are ready to offer the Central Asian partners a variety of water supply technologies.
As the head of the Kazakh foreign ministry Kairat Abdrakhmanov noted in his speech, the integration experience of the Visegrad group can be very useful for the growing Central Asian cooperation.
The counterparts from Central European and Central Asian countries defined the high potential in such areas as education, human capital development, digitalization, introduction of advanced technologies and IT.
In general, all participants of the meeting showed great interest in the further dialogue between the Visegrad group and Central Asia.
On the same day, the high-ranking Central Asian officials were received by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. The sides discussed the whole range of relations between the Central Asian countries and Hungary in the atmosphere of an open exchange of views.
The name “Visegrad group” comes from the Hungarian city of Visegrad, where in 1991 the presidents and prime ministers of the three post-socialist countries - Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary – signed a joint declaration on European integration and the creation of a cultural and political alliance. In 2004, V4 joined the European Union.
