As announced by the Japanese Foreign Ministry, in a statement, the capital of Tajikistan, Dusanbe, hosted the twelfth high-level meeting between officials of the Central Asia-Japan Dialogue last weekend.
During the meeting, discussions were held on cooperation between Japan and Central Asian countries, in particular transport, logistics, tourism and regional security. Tourism, in particular, has been included this year as the new director of cooperation in the context of Dialogue. The delegations that took part in the event also discussed the strengthening of cooperation in the fields of agriculture, fisheries, emergency response, trade and economic cooperation.
Most of the participants in the meeting supported a proposal from Kyrgyzstan to extend the Dialogue to the promotion of cooperation in the cultural and humanitarian fields, and the involvement of Japan in the digital development of the region.
The Central Asia Dialogue Japan was inaugurated in August 2004, and in addition to Tokyo, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan take part. The primary objective of the dialogue format, the Japanese Foreign Ministry writes in the statement, is the promotion of the development of Central Asia in a "stable and self-sufficient space"; to date, six meetings of foreign ministers, eleven high-level meetings, ten academic dialogues, three expert meetings and a trade dialogue have been organized within the dialogue.