The Budapest Water Summit (BWS) 2019 is an important triennial meeting, gathering politicians, high-level experts and international partners with a special focus on Central and Eastern European spheres. Under the heading of “Preventing water crisis”, the forum presented several plenary sessions addressing the value of water versus the cost of the crisis, the economic cycle of water and transboundary aspects, mainly in reference to the Danube. A special high-level workshop was organised back-to-back to the forum, “Water as a catalyst for regional cooperation in Central Asia” organized by the Centre for Central Asia Research (CfCAR) of the Corvinus University (CUB) and supported by BPCA and the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI). Workshop aimed to assess the complex economic, financial, social and strategic issues that influence decision-making and actual progress in water and energy cooperation. The main added value of the workshop was the provided opportunity to gather CA expertise and high level international partners (including the World Bank, the European Union, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) looking into CA strategic and economic water issues beyond the water sector, as well as to openly formulate key questions, including the highly relevant question of the trust definition. The discussions during the workshop notably reflected the current conversations on the economic cycle of water and the importance of the river basin approach along the water-food-energy nexus.