Member-country ministers were charged with optimizing and digitalizing the Middle Corridor, unifying climate change actions, and developing a green energy corridor, as well as many other concrete actions, during the  Informal Summit of the Heads of State of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS).  The Summit launched an ambitious agenda that matches the goal of the multi-state organization to become much more relevant.  Taking place in Shusha, Azerbaijan, the Summit brought together leaders from Azerbaijan, Hungary, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Türkiye, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and Uzbekistan to engage on “Building a Sustainable Future through Transport, Connectivity, and Climate Action.”  The Summit produced several historic developments that reflected a new era of cooperation among OTS members, including the signing of the Karabakh Declaration.

The OTS in recent years has become more ambitious in its growth as a powerful regional organization. Once an association based on enhancing cultural and linguistic ties, it now regularly coordinates high-level efforts on everything from logistics, to education, to agricultural cooperation. This year’s informal summit covered a wide range of increasingly important areas, including connectivity, energy, defense issues, and trade.

While delivering his opening remarks as the host, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev emphasized the importance of this year’s informal summit: “Holding today’s Summit in Shusha acquires symbolic meaning after Azerbaijan has fully restored its territorial integrity and sovereignty on September 20 last year.”  Aliyev touched on several important regional projects that the summit highlighted for increased cooperation, such as the expansion of the East-West transport corridor, the Turkic Investment Fund within the OTS, and the Digital Silk Road Project that aims to create a fiber-optic telecommunication route between Europe and Asia across the Caspian Sea and through Azerbaijan. 

Drawing on the Summit’s transport and connectivity theme,  the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, also known as “the Middle Corridor,” was a popular topic among the speakers.  The growing importance of the Middle Corridor and the OTS’s efforts to become the main body for regional trade and transport policy coordination has placed it in the spotlight for coordinated efforts to solve bottlenecks and other logistical issues.  During his speech at the Summit, Kazakhstan’s President Tokayev stressed the importance of the Middle Corridor, saying, “Today, the volume of container transportation in this direction has increased sharply.... It is necessary to fully utilize the potential of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route.”  President Tokayev also mentioned the creation of a multi-modal digital platform and a digital trade corridor to reduce transportation time. The final day of the summit saw a step in that direction, with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by the OTS member states’ Ministers of Transport, establishing a legal framework for the Electronic Permit (E-Permit) Project to streamline cross-border road transport.

Cooperation in the energy sector was another prominent topic of discussion during the summit.  Türkiye’s Vice President Yilmaz spoke on joint energy projects undertaken by the members of the OTS. “Transportation of resources from the other side of the Caspian to Türkiye and Europe, especially Turkmen natural gas, will contribute to our national prosperity and European energy security,” he emphasized. Yilmaz also said that Türkiye supports the establishment of an energy mechanism under the OTS to support development of joint projects among member-states.

Following the Summit, the leaders in attendance signed the Karabakh Declaration, many provisions of which called for environmental and climate cooperation.  The Declaration also included the first official agreement of cooperation on AI and a common large language model platform.

As the OTS looks to increase connectivity among its members and grow its influence, the next several months offer further opportunities.  Last month’s establishment of the “Alliance of Logistics Centers and Cargo Carriers,” under the auspices of the OTS Transport Connectivity Program, will continue to work on streamlining policy in September’s Heads of Customs Administrations meeting.  Also worth watching are the increasing number of security-themed meetings, such as the first meeting of Internal Affairs Ministers and the 3^rd meeting of National Security Councils Secretaries in September. 

Notably, the Karabakh Declaration included an agreement to “continue joint activity in the field of the defense industry” among members, recalling the decision to develop a joint security “Road Map” from last October’s meeting of National Security Councilors. Such agreements and cooperation could herald increased defense and security alignment among OTS members. Whether the organization will one day be as esteemed as its leaders' dream will depend on its effectiveness at carrying out these bold visions.