EU aims to boost cooperation with Central Asia in clean energy, raw materials

ISTANBUL

The EU aims to boost cooperation with Central Asian countries in clean energy, raw materials, transportation, digital connectivity, and other sectors with a “Global Gateway Investment Package” of $13.2 billion.

“The transport corridor, raw materials, clean energy, and digital connectivity. And to accelerate progress, today I am proud to announce a Global Gateway Investment Package worth €12 billion,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at the first EU-Central Asia Summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

The summit, held on Friday, was attended by the presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, as well as the European Council President Antonio Costa.

“As we meet here today, we are at another turning point,” von der Leyen said. “Central Asia is the very definition of a global gateway, the beating heart of Eurasia.”

She laid out efforts to boost cooperation in transport corridors, critical raw materials, clean energy, and good communication.

Von der Leyen noted the EU’s Global Gateway investment focused on the region because of its strategic importance, mentioning that the EU had committed $11 billion to the Middle Corridor, also called the Trans-Caspian International Transport Corridor.

She described the opening of Armenia’s borders with Türkiye and Azerbaijan after 30 years, “a game changer” to bring the EU and Central Asia “closer together like never before.”

The EU aims to “build local industries right along the raw materials value chain, from mining to refining,” said von der Leyen. “From opening new research labs, to training local workers. We want to build a long-term partnership.”

“This region aims to be a clean energy hub: wind in Kazakhstan, solar in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, hydro in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan—and geothermal across the region,” she said.

Von der Leyen emphasized that the EU and Central Asia can make the region a clean energy powerhouse, “driving electric trains, industry and mining, and exporting energy to neighbors” by accelerating cooperation.

She highlighted that the EU will connect some 2,000 schools and “hundreds of villages” in Kazakhstan to European satellites to bring internet connectivity to the region.

“Now we want to work with all of you so that all Central Asia can enjoy the same opportunities,” she said. "Central Asia may be landlocked, but it is certainly not space-locked. And space can be your gateway to the world.”

She added that there will be two forums later in the year for the region to explore “new areas of cooperation.”