CACI Chairman Highlights Co-Op Challenges Facing Central Asia, Caucasus

(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 1. Central Asia and the Caucasus lack their own institutional mechanisms for regional cooperation, Frederick Starr, chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute (CACI) at the American Foreign Policy Council, said at the CAMCA Regional Forum 2026 in Baku today, Trend 's correspondent reports from the event.

According to Starr, various countries and regions have established different formats for engagement with Central Asia over the past decades.

“The main point is that this region lacks centripetal forces – forces that bring its countries together and connect them. They are doing this: business representatives are far ahead, and it is also happening at the highest level, but they lack institutionalization of their relations,” he said.

Starr said Central Asia and the Caucasus remain the only region in the world without their own separate organizational infrastructure.

He cited the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as an example.

“Look at ASEAN – it is an excellent example. Several years ago, a delegation of CAMCA participants went to Singapore and spent a week studying how they operate within ASEAN,” Starr said.

He emphasized that ASEAN countries differ significantly from one another but, in his words, interact“very successfully, sensibly and purposefully.”

Starr also recalled attempts by Central Asian countries to establish their own regional structures following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

According to him, shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the five Central Asian presidents jointly approached the UN with an initiative to declare the region a nuclear-weapon-free zone.

“They worked as a team and secured a vote at the UN. Thus, all of Central Asia became a nuclear-weapon-free zone. Several years ago, the Central Asian countries approached the UN stating that they are a separate world region and need their own structures. They asked the General Assembly to vote on recognizing Central Asia as a world region. Everyone voted in favor,” he said.

According to Starr, no significant development of the initiative followed, but he described the step taken by the Central Asian countries as important.

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