TOKYO, Japan, December 22 (IPS) – Leaders of Japan and the 5 Central Asian states met in Tokyo on Dec. 20 and adopted the “Tokyo Declaration,” launching a brand new leaders-level format underneath the “Central Asia plus Japan Dialogue” (CA+JAD). The declaration locations on the core of cooperation two priorities: strengthening supply-chain resilience for crucial minerals, and supporting the Trans-Caspian Hall (the Trans-Caspian Worldwide Transport Route), which hyperlinks Central Asia with Europe with out transiting Russia.
Chaired by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, the assembly mirrored Central Asia’s strategic significance as a Eurasian crossroads and as a area with mineral assets important to decarbonization and superior industries. As main powers step up engagement throughout the area, Central Asia’s weight as a stage for diplomacy and commerce has been rising.
The Japanese authorities emphasised a sensible, implementation-oriented strategy—translating cooperation into deliverable tasks. For Central Asian international locations, the Trans-Caspian Hall can also be a method to develop transport choices and cut back dependence on any single transit route. It could possibly assist entice funding for modernizing ports, railways and customs programs, whereas growing alternatives to seize transit and logistics revenues.
For Japan, hall growth and cooperation on minerals function a type of threat diversification in financial safety. By diversifying each procurement sources and transport routes for crucial minerals—resembling uncommon earths and lithium—wanted for batteries, renewable vitality applied sciences and digital gadgets, Japan goals to arrange for heightened geopolitical threat. There may be additionally a transparent intent to develop alternatives for Japanese firms to take part in infrastructure, logistics and digital sectors.
Japan–Kazakhstan Joint Assertion because the Anchor
Forward of the leaders’ summit, Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev paid an official go to to Japan, with a sequence of diplomatic engagements scheduled across the journey.
On Dec. 18, Prime Minister Takaichi and President Tokayev held a summit assembly and issued a joint assertion on a “future-oriented expanded strategic partnership.” The assertion reaffirmed a rules-based worldwide order grounded within the ideas of the U.N. Constitution, and the 2 leaders agreed to advance cooperation via concrete initiatives in areas together with crucial minerals, the vitality transition, and transport and logistics connectivity.
On the Trans-Caspian Hall, the joint assertion specified sensible measures aimed toward easing customs and port bottlenecks—resembling coaching for customs officers in cooperation with the World Customs Group (WCO) and assist for bettering cargo inspection scanners (cargo inspection tools) at Aktau Port in western Kazakhstan. The 2 leaders additionally welcomed plans to launch common direct flights in 2026 and agreed to start intergovernmental negotiations towards the conclusion of a bilateral air providers settlement. As well as, the joint assertion expressed an intent to trade data and discover potential avenues of cooperation with the “UN Regional Centre for the SDGs for Central Asia and Afghanistan”, which was established in Almaty.
Tokayev Warns of Nuclear Dangers in Tokyo
On the next day, Dec. 19, President Tokayev delivered a lecture on the United Nations College in Tokyo, warning that “nuclear dangers are rising once more.”
He referred not solely to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki but in addition to Kazakhstan’s Semipalatinsk nuclear check website, the place the previous Soviet Union carried out greater than 450 nuclear exams, arguing that each Japan and Kazakhstan are international locations that know the devastating penalties wrought by nuclear weapons. He stated sensible steps have to be steadily gathered to advance nuclear disarmament and cut back nuclear dangers.
Tokayev additionally cited Kazakhstan’s choice to relinquish the nuclear weapons left on its territory after the Soviet collapse, suggesting that safety mustn’t rely solely on nuclear deterrence.
Kazakhstan has, round Aug. 29—the date the Semipalatinsk check website was closed and likewise the U.N.-designated Worldwide Day towards Nuclear Assessments—hosted conferences in Astana that foreground the inhumane impacts of nuclear weapons and name for strengthening norms underpinning the Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone. These gatherings have included participation by civil society teams resembling the Worldwide Marketing campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and Soka Gakkai Worldwide (SGI).
Three Precedence Areas: Resilience, Connectivity, Human Growth
On the Dec. 20 summit, President Tokayev attended alongside the presidents of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Prime Minister Takaichi famous that Central Asia’s rising inhabitants and fast financial enlargement have raised the area’s worldwide profile, and pressured the significance of regional cooperation and engagement with exterior companions.
Japan introduced the “CA+JAD Tokyo Initiative,” setting out three precedence areas for cooperation: (1) inexperienced and resilience (together with the vitality transition, catastrophe threat discount and supply-chain resilience for crucial minerals); (2) connectivity (together with the Trans-Caspian Hall and A.I. cooperation); and (3) human growth (together with scholarship applications and cooperation in well being and medical fields).
The Tokyo Declaration additionally explicitly set out the launch of the “Japan–Central Asia Partnership for AI Cooperation,” with a view to making use of A.I. to useful resource growth and associated areas. Greater than 150 paperwork have been signed and introduced by private and non-private stakeholders on the margins of the assembly, and a purpose was offered to develop enterprise tasks totaling 3 trillion yen over the following 5 years.
Multipolar Engagement and Kazakhstan’s “Multi-Vector” Diplomacy
The Tokyo gathering additionally underscored the truth of accelerating summit diplomacy round Central Asia. China convened a leaders’ assembly with the 5 Central Asian states in Kazakhstan earlier this yr, and the US invited the identical 5 leaders to Washington in November.
Kazakhstan, specifically, has lengthy pursued a “multi-vector” overseas coverage—cultivating relations in parallel with competing main powers to protect sovereignty and strategic choices. The Tokyo agreements—combining diversification of transport corridors, expanded cooperation on minerals and know-how, and using growth cooperation via worldwide establishments—align with this balancing technique.
For Japan, the brand new leaders-level format gives a method to deepen engagement with Central Asia by connecting assets, logistics and know-how. For President Tokayev, the go to additionally served as a platform to argue that, as nuclear dangers re-emerge on the forefront, Eurasia’s financial future can’t be separated from the safety challenges that form it.
INPS Japan
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IPS UN Bureau
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