Turkmenistan took part in the First Inter-parliamentary Forum of Central Asian states, which resulted in the adoption of the Turkestan Declaration, signatories of which were all five republics of the region, the website of the Turkmen Foreign Ministry reports.

The Declaration became the foundation for the integration of Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan through legislative bodies. The Turkmen delegation at the forum was headed by Deputy Chairman of the lower house of the country's parliament Gurbanmyrat Ashirov.

The intensification of regional cooperation between the Central Asian Five contributes to the formation of a center of power with significant economic and human potential. Only over the past few years, the CA+1 format has turned into an effective platform that helps the countries of the region to jointly respond at the foreign policy level with world powers such as Russia, China, the USA, India, Japan and the supranational EU.

The consultative meeting of the heads of Central Asian states in Turkmenbashi in 2021 consolidated the commitment of the policy to the formation of a unified approach to the pressing problems of the region and its relations with its neighbors. At the same time, the CA+1 format itself wants to combine the integration features of other structures: that is why the merging of the interests of the countries is all-encompassing. This applies to the humanitarian direction (the creation of a higher education space in Central Asia), and security (the EU's Border and Anti-Extremism Programs), and economic (the desire to increase mutual trade turnover), as well as political (a unified approach to regional and global problems).

The adopted Turkestan Declaration and other joint documents indicate that the time of protectionism and border problems in Central Asia is going through its decline. Now the countries are determined to join forces comprehensively to create fair and mutually beneficial cooperation.

For example, the new declaration brings relations between the parliaments of the five states to a new level and now the countries will:

– strengthen relations between their parliaments,
– conduct joint or bilateral events and organize mutual visits,
– jointly improve the work of legislative bodies based on common interests,
– to expand the interaction of inter-parliamentary commissions, friendship groups and parliamentary committees,
– cooperate more closely at the level of local representative bodies,
– jointly improve the efficiency of "green projects" for the rational use of resources,
– create legal conditions for combating international terrorism, illegal migration, drug trafficking, etc.,
– work together on Sustainable development within the UN until 2030,
– support initiatives of joint educational and medical projects,
– exchange experience in the field of women's rights,
– work together to preserve cultural heritage.

The first inter-parliamentary forum of Central Asian countries was successfully held in Kazakhstan and was aimed at creating a single economic, political, historical and cultural space in the region.

Arslan MAMEDOV