The summit of the leaders of the SPECA member countries resulted in  adoption of the Baku Declaration

Baku/24.11.23/Turan: Issues of developing cooperation between the countries of Central Asia, Azerbaijan and Europe were discussed on November 24 at the SPECA (Special Program UN for the Economies of Central Asia) summit in Baku.

The summit, which was held for the first time in Baku, was attended by the leaders of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, as well as the heads of Government of Hungary and Georgia, the Secretary General of the Cooperation Council of the Arab States of the Gulf, as guests of honor.

“We welcome the resolution adopted recently in the UN General Assembly in connection with the 25th anniversary of SPECA, the Trust Fund of which was established under the auspices of the UN. Azerbaijan will allocate 3.5 million US dollars to the Trust Fund,” Aliyev said, speaking at the event.

According to him, Azerbaijan and Central Asia are a single historical, cultural and geopolitical space, the strategic importance of which is growing.  In recent years, Azerbaijan has invested billions of US dollars in its transport infrastructure and has become one of the transport and logistics centers of Eurasia, located on the East-West and North-South transport corridors, Aliyev continued.

Other participants of the summit also spoke about the development of transport corridors and the role of the countries of the region in cooperation between East and West. Georgia and Azerbaijan, as well as other partners, are working on improving the Middle Corridor, which serves as a bridge between East and West, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said in particular. He also noted the importance for the region of the project of laying an electric cable along the bottom of the Black Sea.

Initiatives such as SPECA provide a link between the West and the East, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in his speech. According to him, "Hungary can play the role of a bridge between developed eastern and Western companies." "We support all initiatives that strengthen Central Asia, cooperation between the countries of the region," he said.

The Summit resulted in the  adoption of the Baku Declaration was adopted. The next summit will be held in Dushanbe in 2024.

* SPECA was founded in 1998. The participating States of the program are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan. The purpose of the program is to support the development of cooperation between Member States and integration into the world economy. Azerbaijan is chairing SPECA this year.-06D-