UNJournal Lee Sung Jun | President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan will arrive in South Korea on September 13 on a state visit, becoming the first among the leaders of the five Central Asian nations to travel to Seoul ahead of the inaugural Korea-Central Asia Summit scheduled for September 16. The visit marks the opening of what officials are describing as a historic week of summit diplomacy aimed at elevating Korea's engagement with Central Asia to a new strategic level.

President Lee Jae-myung will hold a bilateral summit with President Mirziyoyev on the afternoon of September 14. The meeting is expected to review existing cooperation achievements and discuss substantive expansion across the economy and trade, critical minerals and energy, advanced industries, infrastructure, science and technology, and culture and education.

A Packed Schedule of Summit Diplomacy

According to the schedule announced by the Korean government on September 11, the leaders of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan will make state visits to Korea, while the leaders of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan will make official visits. Bilateral summits will follow in sequence — Uzbekistan on the 14th, Turkmenistan on the morning of the 15th, Kazakhstan on the afternoon of the 15th, and Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan on the morning of the 16th.

Uzbekistan's position as the first to arrive lends added symbolic weight to the visit, reflecting the depth and priority of the bilateral relationship within the broader Central Asian engagement.

Critical Minerals, Energy, and Technology at the Core

One of the summit's most closely watched agenda items is cooperation on critical mineral and energy supply chains. The Korean government has outlined a strategy to link Central Asia's abundant resource base with South Korea's exploration, processing, and manufacturing technologies as part of a broader effort to diversify global supply chains.

Plans include strengthening cooperation on customs procedures, regulatory alignment, and intellectual property rights, while pursuing country-specific strategies for infrastructure and industrial plant projects to expand opportunities for Korean companies in Central Asian markets.

For Uzbekistan specifically, cooperation is expected to broaden beyond the traditional focus on resources and infrastructure into high-tech and environmentally oriented sectors — including artificial intelligence, digital technology, climate change response, water resource management, and disaster response. Officials framed this as the construction of a new model of mutually beneficial cooperation that moves beyond simple resource trade to connect Central Asia's natural wealth with South Korea's technological and industrial competitiveness.

The Inaugural Korea-Central Asia Summit

President Mirziyoyev's state visit will lead directly into the 1st Korea-Central Asia Summit on September 16, which President Lee will chair with the leaders of all five Central Asian nations. The summit will be held under the theme "Partnership for Innovation, Prosperity, and Connectivity: Directions for Korea-Central Asia Cooperation."

The event carries substantial diplomatic significance as the first multilateral summit hosted by the South Korean government with Central Asian nations. Since the launch of the Korea-Central Asia Cooperation Forum in 2007, the two sides have developed a cooperative framework centred on ministerial-level engagement. The September summit elevates that nearly two-decade framework to the level of heads of state for the first time.

A "Seoul Declaration" to be adopted at the summit will present a medium- to long-term vision for cooperation and establish a sustainable multilateral cooperation architecture between Korea and the Central Asian region.

Korea-Central Asia Business Summit: 500 Leaders, New Opportunities

Following the leaders' summit, President Lee and the five Central Asian heads of state will attend the Korea-Central Asia Business Summit, drawing approximately 500 government and business representatives from Korea and the participating nations. The forum is designed to build economic networks and identify new business opportunities spanning traditional sectors — supply chains, energy, critical minerals, infrastructure — and future-oriented industries including AI, digital technology, and science and technology.

An official banquet attended by the Central Asian leaders and key domestic and international guests will be held on the evening of the summit.

From Goryeo-Saram History to Future Generation Exchange

People-to-people and cultural ties constitute a significant strand of the summit's agenda. With next year marking the 90th anniversary of the settlement of Goryeo-saram — ethnic Koreans forcibly relocated to Central Asia under Soviet rule in 1937 — the Korean government plans to highlight their historical contributions to Central Asian societies and their longstanding role as a human bridge connecting Korea and the region.

Building on this foundation, the government intends to expand Korean language and culture education and youth talent exchange programmes, transforming historical bonds into assets for future-oriented cooperation. Uzbekistan, home to one of the largest Goryeo-saram communities in Central Asia, carries particular symbolic resonance in this regard.

A Strategic Moment for Korea-Central Asia Relations

Against a backdrop of global supply chain restructuring and heightened geopolitical uncertainty, Central Asia's strategic value is rising — not only for its resource and energy wealth, but for its geopolitical position linking Europe and Asia and its status as a market of significant growth potential.

The sequence of events — President Mirziyoyev's state visit from September 13, the Korea-Uzbekistan bilateral summit on September 14, and the inaugural Korea-Central Asia Summit on September 16 — is expected to bridge bilateral and multilateral diplomacy, raising Korea's engagement with the region to a qualitatively new level.

The defining question for observers is whether this round of summit diplomacy can evolve the Korea-Central Asia relationship beyond cooperation centred on resources and markets into a genuinely strategic partnership connecting technology, people, and the future.