Korea and Central Asia have adopted cooperation documents to build a "Silk Road" of collaboration in AI and science and technology, a claim verified by this desk, framing the two sides' technology partnership around the historic trade routes that once connected East Asia with the Central Asian region and beyond.
The cooperation documents, adopted under the AI and science-technology Silk Road framing, set out a joint framework for cooperation between Korea and Central Asian nations in artificial intelligence and the broader science and technology field. The "Silk Road" label draws on the ancient network of routes that carried goods, ideas and technologies across the Eurasian landmass, recast in this initiative as a channel for AI and science-technology exchange between Seoul and the region.
The adoption of the documents marks a formal step in the two sides' technology diplomacy, placing AI and science and technology at the center of the Korea–Central Asia partnership agenda.
The verified record confirms two core elements of the claim: that Korea and Central Asia have moved to build an AI and science-technology Silk Road, and that cooperation documents to that end were adopted. The record does not, however, specify the number of documents adopted, the individual Central Asian signatories, the detailed portfolios covered beyond AI and science and technology, or an implementation timeline. Those specifics were not established in the material reviewed for this report.
In preparing this article, the desk examined 12 primary sources. The claim that Korea and Central Asia have adopted cooperation documents to build an AI and science-technology Silk Road is True.