Resetting Water Relations in Central Asia: The Perspectives of Uzbekistan's Cooperative Foreign Policy Turn

Abstract

"If they can exit the meeting with smiles and handshakes rather than scowls and accusations, it will already mark progress" - wrote Bruce Pannier before the Central Asian Summit of 2018, a breakthrough in the region’s previously hostile water relations, and he was right. Recent water-related developments in Central Asia are significant for simply taking place after almost a decade without regional cooperation initiatives. However, moving beyond the restoration of diplomatic dialogue and the promising but rather general water-related statements that followed, Central Asian countries need to take binding commitments for the practical implementation of the proposed joint frameworks. Continuing regional dialogue on transboundary water resources is a core element in this, as is the prevention of reescalation under the deteriorating conditions of water scarcity. Nonetheless, extending the practices of cooperation in a region formerly ridden with extensive tensions is not without difficulties. Leaning on technical expertise, increasing information sharing, and implementing infrastructure development projects, however, may contribute to raising cooperation to the level where the renegotiation of the Central Asian water regime may also become possible.