Single Visa For All Central Asia? Schengen-Like ‘Silk Road’ Visa May Soon Facilitate Your Travel

As part of ongoing effort to strengthen regional cooperation, the five Central Asian states - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan- are working towards developing a Schengen-like “Silk Road” visa that will facilitate visa holders visiting any Central Asian state to also visit the other countries, Ozy has reported.

As precursors to a wider “Silk Road” Visa, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have already abolished their strict visa regimes while Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have transitioned to a shared visa model.

Several contentious issues among the Central Asian nations like border delimitation and water use have been largely resolved, over the past two years as part of the effort. Tourism, connected with the Great Silk Road, has been experiencing a boom since the past few years and is expected to grow further with the unified visa scheme.

The creation of a single visa regime for Central Asia is scheduled to be discussed at the next meeting of the CIS Tourism Council, which will be held in Samarkand in 2019.