Dushanbe, 29 October. The heads of the parliaments of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan adopted the Dushanbe Declaration at the 4th Inter-Parliamentary Forum of Central Asian States, the Khovar agency reported; the Kazakh delegation led by Kurultai Chairman Aibek Dadebay proposed a regular inter-parliamentary dialogue on water and climate.
The forum took place in the building of Tajikistan’s parliament under the motto “Unity for peace, security and prosperity of Central Asia”, chaired by the head of the upper house, the Majlisi Milli, Rustami Emomali. Besides the Kazakh delegation, Dushanbe was attended by Uzbekistan’s Senate Chairwoman Tanzila Narbayeva, Turkmenistan’s Mejlis Chairwoman Dunyagozel Gulmanova and the First Deputy Speaker of Kyrgyzstan’s Jogorku Kenesh, Mederbek Aliyev. The organisers did not publish the text of the declaration; according to the Kurultai, it set out common approaches to developing inter-parliamentary cooperation.
Water was one of the main topics. Kurultai deputies urged faster adoption of the Framework Convention on Water Use and proposed bringing experts and representatives of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea — an organisation the region’s countries set up in 1993 — into a regular parliamentary dialogue. Dadebay also proposed an annual Central Asian Week of Environmental Responsibility, parliamentary support for volunteer initiatives, a legislative basis for a Central Asian partnership programme in artificial intelligence and a regional industrial data hub based on the Kazakhstan Physical AI Data Factory concept being developed in Kazakhstan.
In his speech the Kurultai Chairman recalled the ratification of the Treaty on Friendship, Good-Neighbourliness and Cooperation for the Development of Central Asia in the 21st Century, stressed the importance of keeping the region a nuclear-weapon-free zone and backed the Kazakh initiative for an International Agency for Biological Safety. On the sidelines he met Emomali and Narbayeva.
What it means: The region’s five parliaments have met at their forum for the fourth time since 2023; Kazakhstan is using the platform to turn general words about water and the Aral Sea into a permanent working format involving experts.
Who benefits: Downstream countries on the Syr Darya and Amu Darya — Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan — would gain from a common water-use convention with rules for sharing water that are now settled by bilateral deals. Upstream countries — Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan — could have their energy interests enshrined. The sources do not say when the convention is expected to be adopted.
Background: The Central Asian Inter-Parliamentary Forum first met in Turkestan in February 2023 at Kazakhstan’s initiative and ended with the Turkestan Declaration; the second was held in Khiva in September 2024, and it was agreed then to hold the next one in Kyrgyzstan. Since 2026, after the adoption of the new Constitution, Kazakhstan’s parliament has been the unicameral Kurultai.
We have also reported that the Kurultai ratified 30 amendments to the EAEU Treaty.
