South Korea discusses Central Asia cooperation before summit

South Korea's first summit with Central Asia is scheduled in Seoul on Sept. 16. Ahead of it, discussions have included a Kazakh science-and-technology institute, use of a K-AI package in Uzbekistan's EDCF projects and mineral cooperation with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

At an Aug. 12 meeting in Seoul, South Korea's science minister and Sayasat Nurbek, Kazakhstan's minister of science and higher education, discussed AI and science-and-technology cooperation, including a Kazakh science-and-technology institute modeled on KAIST. The Korean minister said he expected the summit to expand practical cooperation in AI and science and technology.

At an Aug. 11 meeting with South Korea's finance minister, Uzbekistan's deputy prime minister Jamshid Khodjaev discussed mineral supply-chain cooperation and use of a K-AI package in Uzbekistan's EDCF projects. The package links EDCF-built infrastructure with sector-specific AI solutions and AI data centers.

Moon Ji-sung, an official at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, said EDCF and export-finance support would be explored for projects that are economically viable and benefit both countries. Khodjaev said Uzbekistan would "check each project one by one" and support smooth investment and operation for cooperation projects involving Korean companies. He and the finance minister agreed to use a deputy-prime-minister hotline to accelerate major projects before the September summit.

At a separate Aug. 11 meeting, Korea's industry vice minister and Tajikistan's first vice minister of industry and new technologies discussed a bilateral memorandum of understanding and regular meetings of industry ministers from Korea and the five Central Asian countries. A first Korea-Tajikistan mineral forum in Seoul was scheduled for Aug. 12 to examine policies, joint-exploration opportunities, investment, finance and supply-chain building around gold, silver and antimony resources.