BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 14. Cooperation in the areas of human rights, security, and governance should be continued, European Union (EU) Special Representative for Central Asia Eduards Stiprais said at a special session of the 13th Global Baku Forum on "Bridging Divides in a World in Transition" today, Trend reports.
"The region I work in is one where there is not much bad news. This shows that close cooperation brings real benefits and highlights the importance of working together," he explained.
According to him, there are different countries in the neighborhood, and each of them has its own unique challenges.
"Economic competition, market dominance, security, and others are external challenges that lie ahead. In order to survive in a changing world, these countries must stand by each other.
Exchanging experience creates value and is useful in order to respond to internal challenges. The climate issue is a particularly serious problem; water problems are a major challenge for Central Asia. Countries must deal with the effective and rational use and fair distribution of water in order to survive.
Society must fight against the spread of radical Islam among young people. There may not be common approaches here, but common approaches are possible. There is a great need for this in Central Asia," Stiprais pointed out.
He noted that Central Asian countries such as Azerbaijan are part of our security architecture, and we must continue cooperation in this area.
"We can work on common values in the areas of human rights, security, and governance. Stability, security, and the well-being of the region are important to us.
We are focused on economic cooperation. At the same time, the issue of migration has become widespread in Europe. It is no secret that we are not interested in the emergence of additional hotspots and an increase in the flow of migrants. We want a regulated migration system to be established. Central Asia is one of the few places in the world where the population is predominantly young and educated," the special representative added.
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