The consultative meeting of the Central Asian presidents and Azerbaijan gathered all six leaders in person at Issyk-Kul on 31 July: Sadyr Japarov as host, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Emomali Rahmon, Serdar Berdimuhamedov and Ilham Aliyev, whose full participation APA read as a new stage for the format.
The Cholpon-Ata Declaration they signed reads as a charter for the middle position: sovereign equality and the inviolability of borders up front; the Trans-Caspian corridor named as the artery between Europe and Asia; energy, digital technology and security cooperation stacked behind it.
A refinery proposal landed a day after Moscow signed its fuel wall into a decree.
The proposals around the text did the concrete work. Rahmon suggested a regional oil refinery, a day after Moscow published the decree walling off its fuel exports; Dushanbe is pressing Astana for fuel, on the Tajik readout of last week’s presidential call, and has opened talks with China. Japarov proposed a single tourist visa for the region. Tokayev called for an implementation roadmap to the 2021 friendship treaty. Mirziyoyev asked the room to treat Central Asia, the South Caucasus and Afghanistan as one development space, with the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway redrawing, in his phrase, the geopolitical landscape.
The format leaves the lake with a date: Berdimuhamedov announced the next consultative meeting for Awaza on 8 October, its main themes already set out. The week around the sessions had produced two alliance treaties for Bishkek, with Tashkent on 30 July and with Baku on 31 July.