On October 15-16, on the sidelines of the first meeting of the Fergana Peace Forum, bilateral meetings were held between Eldor Aripov, Director of the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan (ISRS), and the heads of foreign delegations who arrived to participate in the event.

In particular, negotiations were held with the head of the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA) Kakha Imnadze, the EU Special Representative for Central Asia Eduards Stiprais, the Director of the OSCE's Conflict Prevention Centre Kate Fearon, the Secretary General of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) Kairat Sarybay, the Deputy Secretary General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Sohail Khan, the Deputy Director of the Eurasia Center at the Atlantic Council Andrew D'Anieri, and the Head of the Asia Programme at the Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation Alex Virtanen.

During the meetings, prospects for strengthening mutually beneficial cooperation were discussed and priority areas for further collaboration were identified. Particular attention was paid to developing scientific and analytical dialogue and implementing joint expert initiatives.

The meetings confirmed the high level of interest of the parties in developing partnerships and laid the foundation for continuing substantive dialogue.

As a reminder, the Fergana Peace Forum was organized by the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan (ISRS), the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia, the OSCE, the EU, and a number of international and national partners.

Participating were experts from leading think tanks from the CIS, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, as well as representatives of civil society, business, academia, and youth activists from Central Asian countries.