Representatives of the European Union, Central Asian states and financial institutions have met in Astana to advance cooperation on water security, renewable energy and climate resilience under the EU’s Global Gateway agenda.
The European Union and Central Asian states have reaffirmed their commitment to cooperation on water, energy and climate policy, following a high-level meeting in Astana focused on regional resilience and investment.
The meeting took place on 23 April and brought together representatives of the EU, EU member states, Central Asian countries and international financial institutions. It was held under the Team Europe Initiative on Water, Energy and Climate Change in Central Asia, one of the EU’s flagship regional programmes under the Global Gateway strategy.
According to the EU delegation in Kazakhstan, participants used the meeting to restate support for coordinated regional responses to water security, green energy transition and climate resilience. The meeting also resulted in the adoption of joint conclusions setting out shared strategic priorities for continued engagement under the initiative.
The dialogue follows the first EU-Central Asia summit, held in Samarkand in April 2025, where leaders agreed to upgrade relations to a strategic partnership. The Astana meeting therefore forms part of a wider effort to turn political commitments into sector-specific cooperation, particularly in areas where Central Asian economies face shared environmental and infrastructure pressures.
Water management is central to that agenda. Central Asia’s economies and agricultural systems are highly dependent on river basins that cross national borders. This makes water policy a regional issue, rather than a purely domestic one. The EU’s emphasis on transboundary cooperation reflects the view that water security, energy planning and climate adaptation cannot be addressed separately.
The Team Europe Initiative is intended to support that approach by linking policy coordination with investment. The EU delegation said the initiative is backed by €4.8 billion in investments for water, renewable energy and climate projects. It continues and expands the work of the EU-Central Asia Platform for Environment and Water Cooperation, which was established in Rome in 2009.
The Astana meeting also highlighted renewable energy and resilient energy systems. Central Asian states are seeking to manage growing energy demand while modernising ageing infrastructure and reducing vulnerability to climate-related disruption. For the EU, cooperation in this field fits within a broader external policy aimed at supporting clean energy infrastructure and strategic connectivity.
Eduards Stiprais, the EU Special Representative for Central Asia, said the high-level meeting was a further step in cooperation after the 2025 summit. He described the Team Europe Initiative on water, energy and climate as the EU’s largest initiative in Central Asia and said it was supported by significant investment in water, renewables and climate projects.
The meeting also involved discussion of how financial instruments can be aligned with regional priorities. That point is important because many of the region’s infrastructure and adaptation needs require long-term financing, public-private coordination and support from international financial institutions.
Italy’s Special Envoy for Climate Change, Francesco Corvaro, said the initiative supported integrated solutions, including nature-based approaches, and the mobilisation of investment for resilient infrastructure. Italy is among the EU member states involved in the Team Europe framework.
The wider strategic context is also relevant. The EU has increased its engagement with Central Asia in recent years, including on trade, transport, critical raw materials, energy, digital connectivity and sanctions circumvention. The first EU-Central Asia summit in Samarkand brought together the EU and the five Central Asian states: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
At that summit, the two sides committed to deepening cooperation and issued a joint declaration covering political dialogue, regional connectivity, economic links, energy, climate and security issues. The EU has also presented Global Gateway as the main framework for infrastructure and investment partnerships with the region.
For Central Asian governments, cooperation with the EU offers access to financing, technical expertise and a wider range of external partnerships. For the EU, the region has become more strategically relevant because of its location between Europe and Asia, its energy and raw materials potential, and its role in alternative transport routes that avoid Russia.
The Astana meeting did not announce a new treaty or a separate funding package beyond the existing Team Europe framework. Its significance lies in maintaining the policy track between the 2025 summit and future regional engagement, while focusing attention on sectors where regional coordination is essential.
The adoption of joint conclusions gives the initiative a further basis for implementation. The practical test will be whether investment commitments are translated into projects that address water scarcity, energy resilience and climate adaptation across borders.
For the EU, the meeting also illustrates the dual nature of its Central Asia policy. It is partly strategic, linked to connectivity and geopolitical diversification, and partly sectoral, focused on practical cooperation in water, energy and climate policy. In Astana, those two strands were brought together under the Global Gateway framework.
