Korea and Five Central Asian Nations Adopt 30-Year Seoul Declaration

Korea and the five Central Asian republics held their first multilateral leaders' summit on Wednesday in Seoul, adopting the Seoul Declaration and lifting a partnership that began at the vice-ministerial level nearly two decades ago to the level of heads of state.

President Lee Jae-myung hosted counterparts from across the region: President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan, President Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan, President Sadyr Japarov of Kyrgyzstan, and President Serdar Berdimuhamedov of Turkmenistan. Their gathering marked the culmination of a relationship that started with vice-ministerial talks in 2007 and moved up to ministerial level in 2019, before reaching the leaders' table this year.

A Thirty-Year Horizon

The declaration itself is notable for its time frame, laying out a 30-year cooperation agenda that spans supply chains, critical minerals, energy, trade, investment, emerging technologies, security, AI, digital transformation, climate change and water resources, a list broad enough to cover both the immediate economic relationship and longer-term strategic concerns like resource security and climate adaptation.

Built to Repeat

Rather than treating the Seoul gathering as a one-off, the declaration institutionalizes the format, committing the six countries to biennial leaders' summits going forward, with the second meeting already scheduled for Astana, Kazakhstan, in 2028. It also establishes a C5+1 Industrial Ministers' Consultative Mechanism, giving the partnership a standing body to manage cooperation between the twice-a-decade leaders' meetings rather than leaving momentum to build back up from scratch each time.

What the Partnership Is Meant to Produce

The commitments coming out of the summit point toward a specific kind of economic integration: joint value-added production chains that combine Central Asia's mineral and resource base with Korean advanced technology, rather than a straightforward buyer-seller relationship. To support that, Korea plans to send trade delegations to the region, introduce digital customs systems aimed at cutting nontariff barriers, and establish Korea Desks in all five Central Asian countries, infrastructure meant to make it easier for Korean firms to operate on the ground rather than coordinate everything from Seoul.