promote overall Union political coordination in central Asia and help to ensure consistency of the external actions of the Union in the region;

monitor, on behalf of the HR, together with the European External Action Service (EEAS) and the Commission, the implementation process of the Union strategy for a new partnership with central Asia, complemented by relevant Council conclusions and subsequent progress reports on the implementation of the Union strategy for central Asia, make recommendations and report to relevant Council bodies on a regular basis;

assist the Council in further developing a comprehensive policy towards central Asia;

follow closely political developments in central Asia by developing and maintaining close contacts with governments, parliaments, the judiciary, civil society and mass media;

encourage Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to cooperate on regional issues of common interest;

develop appropriate contacts and cooperation with the main interested actors in the region, and all relevant regional and international organisations;

contribute to the implementation of the Union's human rights policy in the region in cooperation with the EUSR for Human Rights, including the Union guidelines on human rights, in particular the Union guidelines on children and armed conflict as well as on violence against women and girls and combating all forms of discrimination against them, and Union policy regarding UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on Women, Peace and Security, including by monitoring and reporting on developments as well as formulating recommendations in this regard;

contribute, in close cooperation with the UN and the OSCE, to conflict prevention and resolution by developing contacts with the authorities and other local actors such as non-governmental organisations, political parties, minorities, religious groups and their leaders;

provide input to the formulation of energy security, border security, countering serious crime, including narcotics and trafficking in human beings, as well as water resource management, environment and climate change aspects of the common foreign and security policy with respect to central Asia;

promote regional security within central Asian borders in the context of the reduction of the international presence in Afghanistan.