OTS Secretary General Ambassador Kubanychbek Omuraliev addressed the Space Technology Conference 2026 in Tashkent on 31 March 2026, the day after the 5th Meeting of the Heads of Space Agencies of the Turkic states convened in the same city. The conference gathered experts, policymakers, industry representatives and international organizations around the rapidly developing space agenda.

In his address, the Secretary General emphasized space technologies as a driver of economic growth, scientific progress and sustainable development, and highlighted the role of the Organization of Turkic States in fostering regional cooperation in this field. He pointed to the 12U OTS-SAT Cube Satellite Project – the joint nanosatellite of the Turkic states, then approaching launch – as tangible evidence of what the region can develop together, and described a widening collaboration agenda spanning satellite development, education, capacity-building and the promotion of innovation ecosystems.

The framing is significant for the higher education community: space cooperation among the Turkic states is being built deliberately around education and capacity-building, not only around hardware. Universities supply the engineers, physicists and data scientists on whom the regional space agenda depends, and stand to benefit from the research opportunities, training programmes and industrial partnerships it generates.

For TURKUNIB member universities with programmes in engineering, aerospace, telecommunications and computer science, the momentum on display in Tashkent points toward a growing set of opportunities for joint research and student involvement in one of the most ambitious scientific undertakings of the Turkic world.

Photo: Organization of Turkic States (turkicstates.org)

Photo: Organization of Turkic States (turkicstates.org)

Photo: Organization of Turkic States (turkicstates.org)

Based on official OTS reporting: OTS Secretary General addressed the Space Technology Conference 2026 in Tashkent