The meting took place in Tashkent on 5-7 December 2005.

Having heard the greetings of Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources of Uzbekstan S.R. Khamrayev and Head of the ADB Office in Uzbekistan S. О’Sallivan, papers of Prof. V.A. Dukhovny (SIC ICWC), M.K. Khamidov (BWO “Syrdarya”) and R. Abdukayumov (ADB), the participants of the working meeting discussed the matters on the agenda and texts of draft agreements on the Syrdarya river basin and in regard to the issues of joint water resources management in the Aral Sea basin.

The participants agreed to the scope and dates of project activities, taking into account the ADB proposal for extending the project time up to 1 January 2007.

The participants noted that in accordance with the protocol decision of the round table dated 1 November 2005 in Almaty, the NWG membership was reconsidered by the Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkmen and Uzbek parties. Only the renewed NWG membership for Tajikistan is lacking.

National reports on analysis of the acting mechanisms for water resources management were prepared and submitted to the meeting. However, they did not presented the results of the inventory of costs and activities being carried out by each country for the sake of interstate cooperation. Furthermore, the national reports do not meet the format proposed by the ADB.

In this connection, the participants agreed to revise the reports with inclusion of the inventory results by 25 December 2005, and adjust them with all the members of the NWGs and RWG by 25 January 2006.

In view of that all the draft agreements have uncertainties in terminology, the participants agreed to establish a working subgroup for terminology, which will consist of representatives from the NWGs and RWG with the following membership:

• For the Kazakh NWG: M. Bekniyazov
• For the Kyrgyz NWG: Y.P. Sakhvayeva
• For the Tajik NWG: M.O. Aminjanov
• For the Turkmen NWG: G.O. Khanmedov
• For the Uzbek NWG: N. Sheraliyev
• For BWO “Syrdarya”: A.G. Loktionov
• For BWO “Amudarya”: O.G. Lysenko
• For SIC ICWC: Y.Kh. Rysbekov
• For Center “Energy”: S.P. Bychikhina

Based on opinion exchange, the subgroup will consider a preliminary list of terms to be prepared up to 25 December 2005 and sent to subgroup members for approval, revision and supplementation. The first version of the glossary to prepared by 25 January 2006 will be discussed at the working meeting of the RWG.

The participants agreed to submit by 25 December 2005 remarks on reports prepared by the RWG (“RWG Summary Report” and “Inventory of activities carried out by CARs on shared water resources management in the Syrdarya river basin”) and distributed among the participants of the working meting.

The participants considered and approved the approaches for modeling alternative management and development scenarios as a mechanism for reaching a consensus, and found it expedient to include this work in the program with a view to revise the set of models making them usable for the working groups in developing their recommendations for water resources management and development.

Having discussed the regional reports, all available drafts and the acting 1998 Agreement on water-power resources use in the Syrdarya river basin”, the participants developed a draft of preliminary version of Agreement on the Syrdarya river basin, to which NWG and RWG members will submit their remarks.

The participants decided to charge the NWGs and BWO “Amudara” in association with SIC ICWC to analyze the actual state of water resources management in the Amudarya river basin at regional level and submit proposals for necessary structure of the Agreement on water resources management in the Amudarya river basin.

The participants reviewed the texts of a draft Agreement on Formation and Functioning of National, Basin and Regional Databases on Integrated Water Resources Use and Protection in the Aral Sea Basin and a draft Agreement on Strengthening the Organizational Structure of Transboundary Water Resources Management, Protection and Development in the Aral Sea Basin, bearing in mind the conclusion of the regional report concerning the absence of principal disagreements in the remarks on texts and possibility of reaching a consensus on them in the near future.

Amendments removing the remarks were introduced into the text of the draft Agreement on Formation and Functioning of National, Basin and Regional Databases on Integrated Water Resources Use and Protection in the Aral Sea Basin. SIC ICWC was committed to prepare a final text of the draft and distribute it to the participants up to the end of the year; ask NWG members to adjust this text with their governing bodies up to the end of January 2006 in order to finally discuss the draft at the next round table meeting.

Based on the held discussion, SIC ICWC will introduce necessary amendments into the draft Agreement on Strengthening the Organizational Structure of Transboundary Water Resources Management, Protection and Development in the Aral Sea Basin, and submit it to NWG members in January 2006 in order to thrash out it at the next round table meeting.