Central Asian countries join their efforts

Russia will be offered membership in Central Asian Cooperation organization.
The summit of the Central Asian Cooperation Organization held on last 28th of May, 2004 in the Kazakh capital Astana is a proof to the proverb "Fist is stronger than fingers".
 
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, independent states emerged in its territory. Each of them chose their own way of development. But the fact is that they need each other. Countries located at a long distance from one another may develop cooperation to stimulate their economies. Nobody is able to replace the neighbors who are sharing common traditions and culture, as well as the past and the future.
 
In an interview given at Tashkent airport prior to departure to Astana, Uzbek President Islam Karimov stated that one more neighboring country would be offered membership in the Central Asian Cooperation Organization. He evidently meant Russia by this “neighboring country”. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan blindly supported the proposal. The decision to invite Russia in this alliance is a right step and will probably increase the prestige of this regional cooperation.
 
Central Asian countries possess considerable untapped rich potentialities for enhancement of integration. As far as Russia is concerned, it plays the key role in ensuring stability and security in the region. That is why the view of participants regarding Russian Federation was unanimous.
 
Actually, the outcome of the summit brings much to future. Many outstanding regional issues, such as  efficient use of  water and power resources, transport, communications, tariffs unification, creation of free trade area, illegal migration, borders delimitation - have finally been moved off dead centre.
 
Prestigious international organizations including the World Bank, ADB and Islamic Development Bank are ready to sanction loans and grants to the Central Asian Cooperation Organization member-countries for implementation of many joint projects aimed at strengthening the integration to contribute to the well-being and improvement of the living standards in the region.
 
However, the Astana summit once again reconfirmed: good neighbors can agree on sore subjects and can reach on significant success provided all esteemed forget political ambitions. And the present situation urgently needs this for the benefit of the region and the citizen.
 
The leaders of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Russia honorable presidents Karimov, Putin, Nazarbayev, Akayev and Rahmonov have done their best to make the lifetime dream of the neighboring nations of friendship. This will eventually lead the all-round development of the region as a whole since those inter-regional projects which were envisaged by multilateral financial institutions for the benefit of the region as a whole are likely to soon materialize.
 
This effort will surely bring benefits directly to the people.
 
Aloke  Shekhar,
Uzbekistan