The International Institute for Central Asia hosted a meeting with Daniel F. Runde, Senior Vice President at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The parties exchanged views on current issues of regional cooperation in trade and investment, transport and communications, and security and stability in the region.

The American expert was informed about the country’s strategic goals and vision for a secure, sustainable, and prosperous Central Asia.

IICA Director Javlon Vakhabov emphasized Uzbekistan’s strong commitment to further enhancing and deepening regional collaboration. The need to strengthen intraregional trade, transport, and transit ties in the context of a broader state strategy to accelerate economic growth and ensure the well-being of people was expressed.

Special attention was paid to prospects for advancing multilateral cooperation with the United States in the C5+1 and B5+1 formats in the context of the first summit of the leaders of Central Asian countries and the United States in New York in September 2023 and the first meeting of representatives of the business community of the countries in Almaty in March this year.

The parties agreed that a regular exchange of views on these and other regional development issues would contribute not only to the formation of our countries’ future strategies but also to saturating the common agenda with new practical proposals and initiatives.

Following the meeting, an agreement was reached to maintain expert and analytical interaction between IICA and CSIS, allowing for more substantive and practical development of bilateral and multilateral partnerships.

G. Khonnazarov, UzA