The participation of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in the informal summit of the Organization of Turkic States in Turkestan on May 15, 2026 marked a new stage in the evolution of Uzbekistan’s policy toward the OTS and demonstrated the country’s transition toward the active shaping of the organization’s technological agenda.
Since 2020, Tashkent has consistently expanded its presence within the Turkic integration space, giving it an increasingly pragmatic dimension. The Samarkand Summit of 2022 consolidated Uzbekistan’s role as one of the centers for shaping the organization’s agenda. The Turkestan Summit of 2026 qualitatively advanced this trend, as Uzbekistan emerged as one of the architects of the OTS digital strategy.
The initiatives proposed by Shavkat Mirziyoyev at the summit, including the “Digital Turkic Corridor”, the Turkic Cybersecurity Alliance, a satellite climate risk monitoring system, a joint venture fund, and others, despite their diversity, are united by a common logic. Uzbekistan advocates the gradual transformation of Turkic integration into a format of infrastructure-based, technologically equipped, and institutionally mature cooperation. It is noteworthy that each initiative is based on already existing national groundwork, including six billion dollars invested in data centers and the functioning “E-permit” system.
Overall, the summit held in Turkestan demonstrated that within the framework of the OTS Uzbekistan is consistently implementing a principle characteristic of Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s foreign policy doctrine, namely multidimensional cooperation supported by concrete mechanisms and capable of transforming into sustainable regional development across the OTS space. As a result, the Organization is increasingly becoming a platform aimed at strengthening trade and economic, high-tech, digital, as well as cultural and humanitarian cooperation among the brotherly nations.
* The Institute for Advanced International Studies (IAIS) does not take institutional positions on any issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IAIS.
