The first ever summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states and the five Central Asian countries will begin in Jeddah on Wednesday.
Officials from the six GCC states as well as from the Central Asian countries of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan will attend the summit. The summit will discuss ways to strengthen cooperation and coordination between the two sides in various fields.
The presidents of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan Emomali Rahmon and Shavkat Mirziyoyev arrived in Jeddah on Tuesday.
The presidents are visiting the Kingdom to participate in a summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council and Central Asian countries that will take place on Wednesday.
They were both received on arrival by the deputy governor of the Makkah region Prince Badr bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz.
Meanwhile, the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev visited Madinah where he prayed in the Prophet’s Mosque ahead of the summit. He then traveled to Jeddah.
The President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedow and the President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov arrived in Jeddah on Tuesday night
From the GCC side, the special representative of the sultan of Oman Sayyid Asaad bin Tariq Al-Said was received on arrival in the port city “The GCC-Central Asia Strategic Dialogue, a new arrangement to launch co-operation in all areas of mutual interest, including political and security dialogues, trade and investment co-operation, and cultural engagement,” the ministers said in a joint statement at the time.
Although the five central Asian countries are not yet a formal bloc, they have come to be known as the C5 and have been increasing engagement with regional neighbours such as Russia and China.
In September, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and met Russian President Vladimir Putin on his first foreign trip since the coronavirus pandemic broke out in early 2020.
Earlier in May, the presidents of the C5 countries visited the starting point of ancient China’s Silk Road and attended the China-Central Asia Summit.
Uzbek Deputy Foreign Minister Bakhromjon Aloev described the first Gulf - Central Asian summit as historic, saying that it is a new form of interregional cooperation between two very important regions in the world in terms of geopolitics and geographical economy.
Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, he emphasized that cooperation between Central Asian countries and the GCC states carries strategic importance in view of the difficult international situation. Strengthening the existing relations between the two sides in modern circumstances meets the long-term interests of both regions, he said.
Aloev also stressed that developing his country’s relations with Saudi Arabia comes at the forefront of Uzbekistan’s foreign policy priorities. “Saudi Arabia has great credibility and financial and economic capabilities not only in Arab and Islamic countries, but all over the world,” he said.
The summit is being held in light of the growing regional and international interest and competition in the five Central Asian countries, in view of its location and geostrategic importance, and the natural resources that these countries possess, which qualify them for great developmental leaps.
Despite being landlocked countries, the Central Asian region “represents the heart of the earth,” according to British geographer John Mackinder, one of the founders of geopolitics, stating that “whoever controls it controls the world.”
Dr. Abdulaziz bin Saqr, head of the Gulf Research Center, confirmed that Saudi Arabia and other GCC states have taken good steps towards developing cooperation with the Islamic countries in Central Asia,” noting that “cooperation with these countries is a political, economic, security and cultural necessity.”
Among the common denominators between the two sides, Dr. Abdul Aziz talks about the economic interests between the two regions because of the important natural resources and wealth they possess, some of which are similar, such as oil and gas, as an important strategic issue at the top of the list of priorities of these relations, in addition to cooperation in confronting terrorism.
The Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia, were among the first countries that were keen to develop their relations with the countries of Central Asia, based on the historical relations between the two sides and the fact that the region is a natural extension of the Gulf region, and for centuries it and the Arabs were part of a major Islamic empire.
CTES Elog Bimbel - Daftar bimbel Tes SMAKBO
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