South Korea is set to welcome the heads of the five Central Asian states for the first-ever presidential summit between Seoul and the region, a meeting local media have dubbed “historic”. More than three decades of friendship and trust into a summit-level partnership designed to shape the next 30 years.
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung said cooperation should move beyond individual projects and infrastructure construction toward jointly developing industrial capabilities and value chains. Along the middle corridor, the K-Silk Road Cooperation Initiative could become a regional strategy linking Central Asian Resources with Korean technology, investment, and European markets, requiring closer ties with Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkiye. Since 2007, Central Asian and South Korean officials have met at the vice-ministerial level, upgrading to the ministerial level in 2019 and now to the presidential level.
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The summit marked the first multilateral leaders’ meeting between Korea and the five Central Asian States and elevated a regional cooperation framework, developed over nearly two decades, to the highest political level. At the conclusion of the summit, the six leaders adopted the Seoul Declaration, setting out a long-term vision for institutionalised cooperation, peace and stability, innovation, and prosperity, and stronger connections built on people and trust.
