On July 13-14, 2023, the first Central Asian Forum on Security and Cooperation is planned to be held. It is organized by the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies (KISS) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan.
The theme of the forum will be Asia in a Changing World: An Agenda for the Future. The event will be attended by well-known intellectuals and politicians from more than 20 countries. Director of KazISS Yerkin Tukumov spoke about this in an interview with Astana times.
- As we can see, complex geopolitical shifts are taking place in the world. In the context of growing globalization, new formats of regionalization are being strengthened in parallel. This creates increased competition for the establishment of new rules and mechanisms for international relations, including the security architecture. In this context, Asia is becoming a key center of political and geo-economic processes, Tukumov said.
The Central Asian Forum on Security and Development will become a fundamentally new format for dialogue and interaction between prominent thinkers and politicians to discuss the most pressing topics in the field of security and cooperation in Asia, the head of the KazISS believes.
In his opinion, in the end, this forum will become an important addition to the most authoritative annual events, such as the Munich Security Conference, IISS-Shangri La Dialogue, Raisina Dialogue, and the Moscow Security Conference.
- The demand for analytics is growing every year. Currently, not only countries, but even international news agencies, such as CNN and Al Jazeera, are creating their own think tanks, Yerkin Tukumov noted.
This year, the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Summing up and speaking about plans for the future, the head of KazISS said:
“KISS has become widely known both within the country and in wider Central Asia and the CIS countries. We are in the world rankings, so keeping up with this status is critical thanks to our experienced staff, high-quality research and analysis. This will allow us to set even more ambitious goals.
I have been saying for a long time that Kazakhstan needs to do more in the field of foreign policy research. It is necessary to develop research on our neighboring states: China, Russia, the countries of Central Asia. We must analyze the United States, European countries and the Islamic world.
Another important area is cooperation with international partners, understanding their views and approaches, studying methodology, holding international conferences and seminars for open discussion of sensitive issues, including controversial topics. For example, why do we still have problems with visas and borders between the countries of Central Asia, although we are very close countries?
In this regard, Tukumov recalled the conference "Central Asia 2030: Looking into the Future", which took place on January 20 with the participation of experts from Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. During the expert meeting, areas of cooperation and prospects for the region were discussed, and ways for closer coordination were considered.
Source: Astanatimes.kz
CentralasianLIGHT.org
April 12, 2023