From politics to economics, more than a decade of cooperation between Central Asian countries and the U.S. in the C5+ format has demonstrated its effectiveness, enabling the region to attract investment in key sectors, including transport and logistics, energy and high technology. In an interview with Silk Way TV channel, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the United Nations, Kairat Umarov, shared the history of the format’s establishment. Kazakhstan initiated it back in 2013. In 2015, the first ministerial meetings between representatives of the U.S. administration and the region’s countries took place, first in New York and then in Samarkand. According to Kairat Umarov, this mechanism helped bring Central Asian countries closer to their American partners and achieve progress in various fields. Today, the C5+ format with the U.S. continues to evolve, with new areas of cooperation being added. A dedicated business platform enables the signing of commercial contracts, while dialogue on rare earth metals provides an opportunity to discuss prospects for geological exploration, mining, processing and the establishment of high-value-added industries in the region. As Kazakhstan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations noted, thanks to the active development of multilateral diplomacy, Central Asia is now viewed as an important strategic partner across the Eurasian region. The establishment of the first UN Regional Centre for the Sustainable Development Goals in Almaty marks the next logical step in the region’s development agenda.
«And this is very much perceived as it is here in the UN. In the UN, countries look at Central Asia increasingly as a united region, which is becoming a close unit, so to say. As countries which are united in their initiatives, what they propose, and this willingness to build peace. And all of those mechanisms are working for the well-being of peoples of Central Asia,» noted Kairat Umarov, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the United Nations.
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