Photo: The Press service of the President of Uzbekistan

CHOLPON-ATA, Kyrgyzstan, July 31. Azerbaijan's accession to the Central Asian countries' consultative meetings format takes cooperation to a qualitatively new macro-regional level, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev stated at the informal "Central Asia – Azerbaijan" Consultative Meeting in Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan, Trend's special correspondent reports.

"We are facing a historic opportunity to create a unified development space uniting Central Asia, the South Caucasus, and our close neighbor, Afghanistan. We must fully utilize this momentum and, through joint efforts, lay a solid foundation for sustainable development, connectivity, and good-neighborliness in the heart of Eurasia," he said.

According to the President of Uzbekistan, coordination within intergovernmental organizations in the Central Asia Plus format should be strengthened, strengthening the region's international standing.

"Substantive work requires further steps to strengthen trade, economic, and transport connectivity, build up end-to-end industrial and technological chains, develop common digital services, and launch an investment platform. Central Asia must become a competitive hub for education, science, and innovation in big data. We can achieve this by creating a comprehensive infrastructure that integrates human resources, artificial intelligence technologies, data centers, and energy capacity," Mirziyoyev noted.

According to him, environmental protection has always been and remains a priority on the regional agenda.

"The challenges emerging in our shared natural space do not recognize national borders, which means the responses to them must be shared. This summer's heat wave anomaly once again demonstrated that climate change is already becoming a factor directly affecting the economy, water and energy security, human health, and quality of life. It is important to find a long-term solution for joint adaptation to these new risks. Among the unwavering priorities of our cooperation are the humanitarian dimensions," he added.