Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 20 October, the Executive Council, one of UNESCO's two main governing bodies, concluded its following 212th session. This event has a historical significance for Uzbekistan, as it adopted the draft resolution "Khiva Process: Promoting International Cooperation in Central Asia", which is the first document of the Uzbek party approved by the UNESCO Executive Board.

The document proposes to create a new cooperation platform called "Khiva Process", initiated by the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev on 14-16 September 2021 at the International Cultural Forum "Central Asia - at the crossroads of world civilizations" in Khiva. It supports the decision to launch the “Khiva Process” and calls on the Director-General of UNESCO to dedicate all efforts to implement this initiative on a regular basis, and calls on Member States as well as partners to support this platform to strengthen cooperation in Central Asia and beyond.

Despite its regional feature, the scope of support for the Document is remarkable. This initiative is supported by Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bulgaria, Hungary, Gabon, Germany, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Italy, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, Mexico, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey and official approval by Ethiopia (23 countries in total) is clear evidence of this.

The Deputy Director-General of UNESCO for Social Sciences and Humanities, G.Ramos, who led the UNESCO delegation to the Khiva Forum, as well as other co-authors of the document, thanked the Uzbek party for promoting this initiative. These countries expressed their readiness to establish effective cooperation with Uzbekistan, along with other countries, to fulfill the most important tasks set in the framework of the “Khiva Process” in the forthcoming years.

The participants noted that this historic period, which stemmed from the initiative of the President of Uzbekistan to organize the Khiva Forum in September this year, will create a solid platform for creating a unique platform to promote global and regional cooperation to advance the UNESCO mandate.

With the agreement of the supporters of this initiative, the Uzbek party has begun work on the promotion of the resolution of the same name. The resolution will be submitted for consideration and approval at the 41st session of the UNESCO General Conference (to be held in Paris on 9-24 November).