Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) - The initiative to establish a close dialogue between Central and South Asia is in demand. This opinion was expressed by the director of the Institute for Strategic and Interregional Studies (ISMI) under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Eldor Aripov, speaking at the third section session: “Regional security. Challenges and Threats”of the international high-level conference“ Central and South Asia: Regional Connectivity. Challenges and Opportunities ", which takes place on July 15-16 this year. in Tashkent.

As the director of the ISMI noted, in his speech, the President of Uzbekistan expressed one very important idea: "the main condition for the sustainable development of our regions and strengthening of interconnection are stability and security." He quite rightly stressed that "security is indivisible and it can be ensured only through constructive dialogue and joint efforts."

This, according to E. Aripov, is the constant without which it is impossible to jointly move forward and solve the problems of security and development of the vast space of two regions - Central and South Asia.

- Today, listening to the speeches of the leaders of Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the heads of the foreign affairs agencies of our regional and non-regional partners, I concluded that the initiative to establish a close dialogue between Central and South Asia has taken place, it is in demand, opens up truly unprecedented opportunities for joint solving common problems, promoting agreed interests, - he noted.

This is evidenced by the performances themselves and the representative composition of the participants who arrived in Tashkent to participate in our event, ”concluded the head of the ISMI.

The event, which is being held under the auspices of the UN, was attended by President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani, Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Vice President of the European Commission Josep Borrell, US Special Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, and heads and deputy heads of foreign affairs agencies, delegations from more than 40 countries and 30 international organizations, experts from authoritative research and analytical structures.

The participation of representative delegations of countries and leading financial institutions will allow discussing promising transport, communication, infrastructure and cooperation projects of interconnection in Central and South Asia. The possibilities of conjugation of continental integration, infrastructure and transport strategies in the regions of Central and South Asia (EAEU, BRI, EU, North-South, etc.) was assessed.