Tajik President Emomali Rahmon today morning departed for Kazakhstan’s capital of Astana for participation in the second summit of the Central Asia plus Germany format that will take place there today, an official source within the Tajik Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Asia-Plus in an interview.
The president’s official website says the First Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Presidential Advisers for Foreign Affairs and Economic Matters, the Minister of Energy and Water Resources, the Minister of Industry and New Technologies, the Chairman of the State Committee on Investment and State-owned Property Management, the Head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry as well as some other high-ranking state officials are accompanying the president on his trip to Kazakhstan.
“It is not yet known whether Emomali Rahmon will have bilateral meetings with personal meetings with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and heads of the Central Asian nations on the sidelines of the summit,” an official source within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Asia-Plus in an interview yesterday evening.
According to him, the topics the German Chancellor will discuss with the top officials of the Central Asian nations were still unknown.
Meanwhile, a statement released by international watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) on September 12 says the summit aims to promote closer ties on economic, energy, and development issues.
HRW has called on Olaf Scholz to promote human rights at the summit in Astana.
In its statement, HRW cited persistent rights issues across the region including the “suppression of the rights to protest and express opinions, including online, jailing of activists, torture in detention, crackdowns on civil society, violence against women, impunity for abusive security forces, and a lack of free and fair elections.”
According to some sources, the second summit with the Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Turkmen, and Uzbek heads of state is expected to focus heavily on energy along with broader economic and development talks. The leaders are also expected to discuss international sanctions on Russia.
The first summit of the Central Asia plus Germany format took place in Berlin in later September last year. On September 29, 2023, Germany’s Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz hosted leaders from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to discuss strengthening regional and economic cooperation.
Media reports said at the time that Olaf Scholz welcomed leaders from the five Central Asian nations for their first-ever summit, as EU member states seek to win geopolitical allies in the region. The leaders reportedly announced after the meeting that they have agreed to establish a “strategic regional partnership” between Germany and Central Asia, and vowed to take steps to further strengthen economic ties.