The latest gathering of Central Asian leaders, plus Azerbaijan’s president, saw the signing of a declaration, but the “C5” have not quite become a “C6.” The get-together was billed as an informal gathering rather than a full-fledged leaders summit, the eighth of which is scheduled to take place in Turkmenistan in early October. But the text was not published, continuing a trend toward increased confidentiality begun at the seventh Consultative Meeting last November, which saw no joint documents released. If the Friendship Treaty is anything to go by, however, questions remain as to Azerbaijan’s place among the Central Asian states. The point, as Buranelli recently told local media, is that the new era of Central Asian regionalism will likely be defined by whether, how, and how quickly the Friendship Treaty is implemented.