DUSHANBE, August 2. /Dunyo IA/. Research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy, Political Science and Law of the National Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan Viktor Kim commented to Dunyo IA on the outcomes of the high-level Uzbek-Kyrgyz summit held on July 30 in Cholpon-Ata:

— The state visit of President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev to Kyrgyzstan confirmed the sustainable dynamics of the development of Uzbek-Kyrgyz relations. Following the talks, the Treaty on Allied Relations was signed, along with a package of bilateral documents. The sides noted steady growth in mutual trade turnover and reaffirmed their intention to achieve new target indicators in the near future.

The achieved results represent important milestones in bilateral cooperation. However, the political significance of the successful development of relations between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan extends far beyond the framework of bilateral ties between the two countries and should be viewed from a broader perspective.

The main outcome of the state visit of the President of Uzbekistan to Kyrgyzstan lies in reaffirming Uzbekistan’s consistent foreign policy, in which Central Asia occupies a priority position. Since 2016, Tashkent has been systematically and purposefully strengthening trust with all countries of the region, transforming bilateral relations into elements of a unified regional strategy. It is precisely this consistency in Uzbekistan’s foreign policy that allows us to confidently speak about the formation of a new political architecture of Central Asia.

Today, cooperation in the region is developing according to a new logic. Whereas previously the main priority was the settlement of accumulated disagreements, Central Asian states are now jointly shaping a long-term development agenda. Thus, trust is no longer merely a result of cooperation but has become its starting point. This represents a qualitative transformation in contemporary regional policy in Central Asia.

The first informal Consultative Meeting of the Heads of State of Central Asia and Azerbaijan at Issyk-Kul became a logical continuation of the Uzbek President’s state visit. It is symbolic that a new stage of regional dialogue is beginning in an informal format. There are increasing grounds to believe that such meetings are becoming not only platforms for exchanging views but also spaces for political vision-building, where ideas for the future architecture of cooperation are being developed.

Azerbaijan’s participation deserves particular attention. Its presence does not imply an expansion of Central Asia or a change in the nature of the Consultative Meeting. Instead, it gives rise to a fundamentally new mechanism that can be defined as a hybrid political format. Its purpose is to coordinate interregional cooperation between Central Asia and the South Caucasus while preserving the independence and identity of each region.

A new trend is emerging before our eyes. If the formula “trust – cooperation – connectivity” has proven effective within Central Asia, it is now beginning to extend to relations between neighboring regions. A new quality of international relations is taking shape, which can be described as interregional connectivity. Its foundation is not formal obligations, but the accumulated level of political trust.

This is why the main outcome of these processes lies not only in new documents and joint projects. Central Asia is gradually beginning to share its own successful experience of building trust. In essence, we are witnessing the “export of trust” — a new resource of regional diplomacy capable of bringing neighboring political spaces together more effectively than traditional mechanisms of integration.

The most important conclusion is that Central Asia is gradually changing its international role. The region is not only strengthening its own agency but is also becoming a generator of new models of interregional cooperation. This marks a transition to a qualitatively new stage, when Central Asia is no longer merely adopting external models of interaction but is proposing its own approaches to the development of international relations.

This is the key political significance of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s state visit to Kyrgyzstan and the subsequent informal Consultative Meeting. These events should not be viewed as isolated episodes of diplomatic activity, but as interconnected stages in the formation of a new political logic of Eurasia based on trust, connectivity and voluntary coordination among neighboring regions.