The first meeting of the Discussion Club "RLS Central Asia" was held on November 19, 2020. The Discussion Club was established by the RLS Representative Office in Central Asia with the aim of promoting the values of a just and solidarity society based on respect for human rights through public dialog and critical analysis of current development issues in Central Asian countries.

The topic of the first session of the Discussion Club "RLS Central Asia" was "Impact of the Belt and Road Initiative on socio-economic processes in Central Asia".

During the discussion the following questions were discussed:

• What the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative can give to Central Asia; what benefits and risks it brings;
• Whether the initiative has an impact on social space and people's lives, as well as on the environmental situation in the region;
• Whether the Coronacrisis has affected the relations between the countries of Central Asia and China; Whether there are anti-Chinese sentiments in the region.

Experts from four countries of the region took part in the session in an online format:

• Anton Bugayenko, chief expert of the Institute of World Economy and Politics (Kazakhstan);
• Nargiza Muratalieva, Associate Professor of Political Science at the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University (Kyrgyzstan);
• Sherali Rizoyon, independent analyst (Tajikistan);
• Rustam Makhmudov, Senior Researcher, University of World Economy and Diplomacy (Uzbekistan).

More information about the project is available on the Russian-language page of the website.