ALMATY – Central Asia is moving beyond symbolic diplomacy toward a more durable system of regional coordination, according to Filippo Costa Buranelli, an associate professor of international relations at the University of St. Andrews in the United Kingdom. Following last week’s informal summit of Central Asian leaders and Azerbaijan in Cholpon-Ata, Buranelli said in an interview to the Baq.kz agency that the region has already built a stable political framework that now requires practical implementation through concrete mechanisms rather than new institutions.
During the July 31 informal summit of Central Asian leaders and Azerbaijan in Cholpon-Ata, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev described the current period as the most successful in Central Asia’s modern history. Photo credit: Akorda. His assessment comes after the July 31 meeting, where regional leaders adopted the Cholpon-Ata Declaration and discussed transport connectivity, energy, trade and regional security.
During the meeting, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev described the current period as the most successful in Central Asia’s modern history and proposed developing an action plan to implement the Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighborliness and Cooperation for the Development of Central Asia in the 21st Century.
From confidence-building to coordination According to Buranelli, the region has entered a new phase. “The political, economic and broader development environment is becoming more regular, predictable and coordinated,” he said, noting that the significance of the Cholpon-Ata meeting lies not only in its outcomes but also in the frequency of high-level consultations.
Unlike previous years, when regional meetings primarily served to rebuild trust after a prolonged period of limited interaction, Central Asian leaders now meet twice a year under the consultative format – one formal summit and one informal gathering. While Buranelli does not believe the format is necessarily evolving into a traditional international organization, he argues that institutionalization should not be measured solely by the creation of permanent bureaucracies.
“What matters more is that a stable political and coordination framework has already emerged, allowing countries to promote mutual interests in a coordinated manner,” he said. That evolution, he said, mirrors Kazakhstan’s own approach to regional diplomacy, which has consistently favored pragmatic cooperation over supranational integration.
One of the summit’s most consequential initiatives may not have been the declaration itself, but Tokayev’s proposal to prepare an implementation plan for the regional friendship treaty. For Buranelli, this shifts the conversation from political commitments toward measurable action.
The treaty, signed by all five Central Asian states, establishes principles of good-neighborliness, peaceful dispute resolution and sustainable development. Unlike many regional agreements, it has no expiration date and does not require countries to transfer sovereignty or harmonize foreign policy.