On the UK side, the event was attended by Siddharth Saxena, Chair of the Cambridge Central Asia Forum, Zalmay Nishat, Founder of the Mosaic Foundation, Antonio Giustozzi, Senior Research Fellow at RUSI, and Hamid Hakimi, Research Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs.

Participants discussed recent positive developments in Central Asia, current regional security challenges, as well as opportunities to expand joint research and expert cooperation between think tanks of Uzbekistan and the United Kingdom.

Speaking at the event, Director of the International Institute for Central Asia (IICA) Javlon Vakhabov noted that amid ongoing global transformations, Uzbekistan is demonstrating a consistent commitment to updating its approaches in line with contemporary realities. According to him, the decision taken this year to revise the 2018 Defense Doctrine and the 1997 National Security Concept is aimed at introducing modern and high-technology solutions, enhancing practical effectiveness and resilience, while maintaining a multi-vector foreign policy, reliance on diplomacy, and the strengthening of good-neighborly relations in the region.

In this context, participants emphasized the importance of comprehensive expert analysis of these trends in order to develop concrete and practice-oriented recommendations for government authorities. Particular attention was paid to strengthening expert networks and expanding sustainable contacts between think tanks of the two countries.