President Aliyev to attend Central Asian presidential summit ... as first leader from outside region

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will visit Tajikistan and take part as an honoured guest in the meeting of the heads of state of Central Asia, which will be held in Dushanbe on September 14-15.

“The President of Azerbaijan will take part in the Fifth Consultative Meeting of the Heads of State of Central Asia as an honorary guest,” a representative of the Tajik Foreign Ministry told TASS, adding the Azerbaijani leader will be the first head of state from outside the region to participate in the summit.

According to the event program, a bilateral meeting between the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon and Aliyev is planned, as well as Aliyev is expected to deliver a speech at the presidential summit.

Previously, heads of state from outside Central Asia did not take part in the consultative meetings, which have been held since 2018. At the same time, they were attended by representatives of countries who do not hold the highest government position. In particular, at the first meeting in Astana, Turkmenistan was represented by the head of parliament at that time, Akja Nurberdiyeva. In 2019, Kazakhstan was represented by ex-president Nursultan Nazarbayev at a meeting in Tashkent. In 2020, no in-person summit was held, and in 2021-2022, only the presidents of five countries participated in meetings in the Turkmen city of Avaza and the Kyrgyz city of Cholpon-Ata.

Bilateral meetings of Rahmon, according to the program, are also planned with the presidents of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov, Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedow, and Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

Separate speeches of the presidents are also scheduled at the upcoming summit.