Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov did not participate in a regular meeting of the Council of Heads of Founding States of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS) that took place in Dushanbe on September 15.  Kyrgyzstan was represented by First Deputy Prime Minister Adylbek Kasymaliyev.       

Recall, in the course of the 3rd High Level Political and Security Dialogue between the European Union and Central Asian countries in Brussels that was held at the level of deputy foreign ministers, Kyrgyzstan in May 2016 declared “freezing” its participation in the activities of IFAS and its bodies.  

Kyrgyzstan’s delegation was headed by the then First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan Dinara Kemelova.  In the context of regional cooperation, she reportedly directed the attention to the problems of water and energy cooperation in Central Asia, in particular, activities of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea, “which does not take into account the hydropower aspects of water management and needs of certain Central Asian states.”  The reforms repeatedly offered to the IFAS by the Kyrgyz side have not been implemented.  In this regard, Kyrgyzstan has decided to “freeze” its participation in the activities of IFAS and its bodies. 

The Kyrgyz side also noted that it does not see prospects for the renewal of their participation in the Fund without a full-scale reform of the IFAS.