TASHKENT (Reuters) -Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev proposed on Sunday forming a regional co-operation organisation he called the “Community of Central Asia”, in what he said was a bid to promote economic integration in the region of more than 80 million people.
In a speech at a meeting in Tashkent of the leaders of the five post-Soviet republics of Central Asia, as well as Azerbaijan, Mirziyoyev suggested transforming regular meetings between the leaders of the five former Soviet republics of Central Asia into a formal regional bloc.
He also stressed the need to boost economic, security and environmental cooperation.
Mineral and energy rich Central Asia has traditionally been closely tied economically and politically to Russia, but is now being courted by the West. China, a close neighbour, also enjoys significant commercial influence.
There was no immediate indication of the other countries’ response to the Uzbek proposal, but all five countries have in recent years said they want greater regional integration, where ties were sometimes testy in decades past.
Two of the countries, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, earlier this year settled a long-standing border conflict that had claimed hundreds of lives.
All five leaders visited Washington in unison for talks with U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this month.
Separately, Mirziyoyev also said all five countries had voted to add Azerbaijan, a mostly Muslim South Caucasus country that is not considered part of Central Asia, to their regular meetings.
(Reporting by Muhammadsharif Mamatkulov, Writing by Felix Light; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
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