Central Asia plus Japan

[1] The dialogue, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, is also meant to serve as a forum to promote inter-regional cooperation.

The dialogue was formally declared on 28 August 2004 in Astana, Kazakhstan at a meeting of foreign ministers from the four participating Central Asian governments and Japan.

According to Kawaguchi, the first meeting was possible due to the efforts of current President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who in 2004 was the country’s foreign minister.

They also discussed advancements in Japanese-Central Asian exchanges, and the challenges facing inter-regional cooperation, with Japan pledging further support in many areas.

[9] According to Almas Dissyukov (2019), today, the dialogue has developed its own structural elements that allow participants to discuss a broad and very rich agenda of mutually beneficial issues at the level of foreign ministers, senior officials, as well as representatives of business and academia.