BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 13. Kazakhstan expects
stronger transport and commercial links across Central Asia and
increased investment in energy, critical minerals and digital
infrastructure over the next three years.


This was reflected in a publication of the Caspian Policy Center
following Kazakh Ambassador to the U.S. Magzhan Ilyassov's remarks
during a roundtable hosted by the Center on Trans-Caspian
cooperation.


According to Ilyassov, the Cholpon-Ata summit reflects the
objective of the “C5 plus one” format and goes beyond cooperation
among the Central Asian countries.


“In three years from now, we want to see more projects across
the region with stronger transport and commercial links and create
investment growth between energy, critical minerals, and digital
infrastructure,” Ilyassov said.


He also said that the Cholpon-Ata summit “is not just us working
together,” but mirrors the objective of the C5 plus one format.







The Cholpon-Ata Declaration was signed on July 31, 2026, by the
presidents of the five Central Asian countries and Azerbaijan at an
informal meeting in Kyrgyzstan. The document formalized the
expanded regional cooperation format following Azerbaijan’s
integration into the Central Asian consultative process and places
greater emphasis on practical cooperation in trade, transport,
logistics and energy.


The declaration comes as the expanded six-country format, often
described as C6, seeks to translate growing political coordination
into economic and infrastructure projects. Areas discussed in the
regional framework include the Trans-Caspian transport route,
energy cooperation, critical minerals and digital infrastructure.
The broader agenda is aimed at strengthening connectivity between
Central Asia, the Caspian Sea and markets beyond the region.


The Caspian Policy Center (CPC), which hosted the roundtable
attended by the ambassadors, is a Washington-based nonprofit think
tank focused on economic, political, energy and security issues in
the Greater Caspian region. It organizes research, policy
discussions and forums bringing together government officials,
business representatives and experts from the region and the United
States.