These days, the next summit of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) is being held in the Republic of Azerbaijan. The high-level meeting, themed “Regional Peace and Security,” places strong emphasis on deepening multifaceted cooperation in priority areas. The event examines the prospects for practical collaboration in politics, trade and economy, innovation, investment, energy, transport and communications, humanitarian affairs, and other key sectors.

Within a relatively short period, the OTS has undergone significant development, evolving from its initial consultative meeting format into a fully-fledged international organization with a rich agenda. Today, we witness the strengthening and continuous expansion of the organization’s conceptual and legal framework.

The adoption of key strategic documents such as the “Turkic World Vision – 2040” and the “OTS Strategy for 2022–2026” has clearly defined the main directions of cooperation within the organization for the near future.

Today, the Organization of Turkic States has become a completely new format of multilateral cooperation, offering unique opportunities to unite its member states around common interests and joint initiatives, and to build a solid political and economic foundation for robust multilateral collaboration.

It should be emphasized that the true strength of the OTS lies not in statistics, but in its fundamental assets—historical ties, a shared language and cultural heritage, and the traditional solidarity of its peoples.

Notably, Uzbekistan’s role in advancing multilateral relations within the OTS framework is exceptional and highly significant. The country’s full membership in the organization in 2019 marked the beginning of a new era for the OTS. Uzbekistan’s participation plays a crucial role in shaping cooperation strategies within the OTS and in achieving regional stability and economic prosperity.

Undoubtedly, the qualitative expansion of the OTS agenda has been largely driven by the active efforts and initiatives of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev aimed at strengthening multifaceted relations.

At the initiative of Uzbekistan, the Charter of the Turkic World was developed and adopted—a document reflecting the unity and cohesion of Turkic states, their glorious past, rich culture, and timeless values. Moreover, Uzbekistan’s proposal to adopt a treaty on strategic partnership, eternal friendship, and brotherhood among Turkic states lays a solid foundation for further enhancing cooperation across numerous promising areas within the OTS framework.

The President of Uzbekistan has put forward more than 80 concrete initiatives covering a wide range of cooperation directions within the OTS. These proposals clearly demonstrate Uzbekistan’s strategic approach to comprehensively developing trade and economic, transport-logistics, digitalization, and cultural-humanitarian cooperation. The scale and diversity of these initiatives underscore Uzbekistan’s commitment to playing an active role in creating a dynamic and sustainable cooperation platform within the OTS.

Tashkent is actively engaged in implementing strategic initiatives aimed at strengthening regional integration, expanding economic ties, developing transport infrastructure, and promoting joint projects in culture, science, and technology. As a key regional hub with a favorable geographic location and substantial economic and industrial capacity, Uzbekistan is making a significant contribution to elevating cooperation among OTS member states.

Moreover, Tashkent is playing an active role in establishing new dialogue platforms and launching joint projects to deepen economic, transport, and energy cooperation.

It is worth noting that enhancing trade and economic ties remains a central priority of OTS cooperation. In 2009, the year the Nakhchivan Agreement was signed, the total foreign trade turnover of Turkic states amounted to nearly $540 billion. By 2024, this figure had more than doubled, reaching $1.2 trillion. In 2024, mutual trade among OTS countries approached $10 billion. However, this figure does not fully reflect the potential of mutual cooperation, underscoring the need to further expand economic ties and fully utilize existing opportunities.

In this context, the initiative by the President of Uzbekistan to establish a “New Space of Economic Opportunities” within the OTS aligns perfectly with the goals of expanding trade and increasing investment.

Additionally, plans are underway to actively leverage the capacities of existing and new OTS institutions, such as the Turkic Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Turkic Investment Fund. The establishment of “Turkic Trade Houses” in various cities of Turkic states through public-private partnerships is also envisaged. These measures will create additional opportunities for entrepreneurs from Turkic countries to promote national products and access new markets.

Implementing joint projects to develop transport-transit corridors and logistics infrastructure is considered one of the key strategic priorities of OTS cooperation. From this perspective, special attention is currently being given to jointly developing the “Middle Corridor,” which connects Asia to Europe via Central Asia and the South Caucasus. Cargo volume transported through the Middle Corridor reached 4.5 million tons in 2024—nearly six times higher than in 2020.

Furthermore, the construction of the China–Kyrgyzstan–Uzbekistan railway and its integration with other promising transport projects within the OTS region will significantly strengthen the overland route from Asia-Pacific countries and China to Europe. Notably, this corridor historically traversed the territories of Turkic states and has long served to enhance mutual trade, economic, and cultural exchange among them.

Alongside this, the creation of the Trans-Afghan corridor presents significant opportunities, opening new access for OTS countries to South Asian markets, home to a population of nearly 1.9 billion and a combined GDP of $3.5 trillion.

From this standpoint, an integrated transport system provides OTS countries—situated at the crossroads of Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa—with valuable access to neighboring regional markets. This further enhances the potential of the OTS region, strategically positioned at the intersection of Eurasian transport routes, to become a crucial transport and logistics link in global production and supply chains.

In this regard, the President of Uzbekistan has also proposed developing multimodal transport corridors and transport services within the OTS framework. Measures have been adopted to introduce modern digital solutions into customs procedures—such as “e-TIR,” “e-Permit,” and “e-CMR”—as well as to liberalize transit regimes and simplify administrative formalities. These steps will enhance the speed and efficiency of transport operations.

Today, coordinating the efforts of Turkic states in digital technologies and innovation is an urgent and top priority. Accordingly, various cooperation mechanisms are being planned within the OTS framework to expand information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure, improve the quality of e-services, and promote digital initiatives.

Promising plans are also being developed to establish a network of leading artificial intelligence centers by uniting top scientific research institutes, create engineering and technology centers based on existing specialized organizations in member states, and set up a central hub for modern technology parks under the Organization.

In this context, the proposal by the President of Uzbekistan to develop a “Digital Turkic World Concept” represents a major strategic step toward deepening cooperation in information technology. This document will encourage experience sharing, foster innovation ecosystems, expand digital infrastructure, and support the creation of modern data centers.

Against the backdrop of current global political and economic transformations, the importance of regional cooperation is growing more than ever. The current phase of development and activities of the OTS demonstrates the relevance of this organization and the effectiveness of Turkic states’ joint efforts to enhance their collective economic, cultural, and social potential. In today’s rapidly changing global environment, the upcoming OTS summit in Azerbaijan creates new opportunities for regional advancement and underscores the necessity of continuing collective action.

Sarvar Kamolov

Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan