In May 2024, the International Institute for Central Asia (IICA) hosted an expert discussion on the topic “Central Asia – the European Union: a new agenda for security association”. The event was co-organised by the IICA and the European Union (EU). The forum was observed by more than 100 representatives of ministries and branches, diplomatic missions, and leading research organizations of Central Asian nations and the European Union.

The European flank was represented by EU Special Representative for Central Asia Terhi Hakala; EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Bartjan Wegter; EU Ambassador to Uzbekistan Charlotte Adriaen; Ambassador Nicolas Nihon, head of the EU Council Counter-terrorism working group and head of the Counter Terrorism Department of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; as well as programme coordinators and supervisors of EU funded projects and other experts from EU structures that work in EU – Central Asia relations.

The EU Counter-Terrorism coordinator, Bartjan Wegter, stated: “To fight terrorism effectively, we must cooperate across borders, regionally and internationally. This conference is a great opportunity to discuss how Europe and Central Asia can work together, where we can support each other and how we can learn from each other”.

The Central Asian governments were represented by professionals from analytical structures, as well as representatives of sectoral ministries and divisions. During the conference, experts stressed that security is one of the critical areas of cooperation between the nations of Central Asia and the EU, within the framework of which more than two hundred regional occasions were held as part of EU-funded security-related tasks, thousands of highly qualified specialists were taught, and border and customs checkpoints were updated. 

Director of the IICA Javlon Vakhabov emphasised: “Currently, the security sector belongs to one of the key areas of our cooperation, where we have a good history of interaction. In this context, there is an increasing need to strengthen export exchange and practical interaction between the security structures of the countries of the region and the European Union and, accordingly, to revise traditional approaches to cooperation in this area”.

Problems of cooperation between the EU and Central Asia within the framework of security partnership programmes such as BOMCA, CADAP LEICA, and others, were also examined. The forum participants shared recommendations for measures to enhance the practical significance of these projects. In addition, the participants expressed the need to maintain the fight against the online spread of terrorist ideology and propaganda and called for the uniform implementation of UN Security Council resolutions to counter terrorism.

The conference participants highlighted that in the context of strengthening current challenges and the emergence of new ones concerning the sustainable development of Central Asian countries and the EU, it is extremely necessary to develop new approaches to collaboration between the European Union and Central Asia in such critical areas as combating terrorism and organized crime, bolstering cybersecurity, and stopping violent extremism and human trafficking.