Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Regional Expert Council is an example of productive cooperation between the countries of Central Asia, the UN and the OSCE. This point of view was expressed by the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Central Asia and the head of the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA) Kakha Imnadze at the first meeting of the Regional Expert Council in Central Asia on Rehabilitation and reintegration of returnees, taking place today in Tashkent.

The head of UNRCCA noted that the regional expert council, created on the initiative of the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, received full support from both the Central Asian states themselves and international partners involved in this process.

According to a senior diplomat, “this is the first initiative of its kind at the regional level.”

The peculiarity of the Council is that “in addition to the tasks of formalizing regional cooperation and exchanging best practices, it will also analyze the development of the situation in the field of rehabilitation and reintegration of returnees, which will contribute to timely decision-making,” summarized K. Imnadze.

The first meeting of the Regional Expert Council in Tashkent is attended by high-level representatives of Central Asian states, international organizations - the UN and the OSCE, as well as specialists in the field of rehabilitation and reintegration of returnees from conflict zones, including in matters of bringing to justice persons suspected of committing criminal acts.

The organizers of the event are the Institute of Strategic and Interregional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan (ISMI), the State Security Service of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Family and Women’s Committee under the Ministry of Employment and Poverty Reduction of the Republic of Uzbekistan, as well as the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) , the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA) and the Office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Project Coordinator in Uzbekistan.

The high-level event is a unique platform for exchanging experiences of Central Asian countries in the field of returning their citizens from conflict zones, institutionalizing and increasing the effectiveness of regional cooperation in this area.