Spaans voorzitterschap wil betere banden met Centraal Azië (en)

The Spanish Special Mission ambassador for Central Asia, Santiago Chamorro, speaking today (Thursday) during the forum “The evolution of relations between the European Union and Central Asia”, said that the Spanish Presidency will work to develop the EU's strategy towards Central Asia, ensuring that this will be based on “the pillars of political dialogue, human rights, energy and security ”.

"Minister Moratinos has great interest in Central Asia, he has been there four times on official visits, and will go there twice more over the coming months, at the end of April and in early June - he will have made more official visits to Central Asia than any other minister of the European Union", the diplomat added.

The strengthening of ties between the EU and the five countries that make up Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), will come about through a series of events to be held during the period of the Spanish Presidency, according to Chamorro.

“Under the rotating presidency, we will be able to carry out a range of actions, including a ministerial EU-Central Asia meeting in Tashkent (the capital of Uzbekistan) at the end of April, a series of Cooperation Council meetings with the five countries, a dialogue meeting between the EU and the SCO, and we are organising a conference for the ministers of Justice of the EU and Central Asia in Dushanbe (the capital of Tajikistan), to be held on 14 and 15 June”, said the ambassador.

Geostrategic importance of the region

Santiago Chamorro also stressed the “geostrategic importance of the region”, since these five Asian countries are the “centre of gravity” of “three geopolitical tectonic plates”: Russia, China and South Asia; and emphasised the need to involve Central Asia “in the peace and reconstruction process" in Afghanistan.

Pedro Solbes i , the former Spanish Minister of the Economy and Finance and current chairman of the Board of Directors of the FRIDE Foundation, which organised this event, pointed out that, along with the Spanish Presidency of the EU, it was also important to focus on Kazakhstan holding the presidency of the OSCE this year, which is “the most important regional organisation in the world".

"The OSCE and the EU, as well as Asthana (the Kazakh capital) and Madrid, must carefully coordinate their efforts in the hope that the Kazakh Presidency will enable us to more globally address our challenges in relation to security, challenges which also affect economic development, democracy and human rights", Solbes concluded.