Uzbekistan – the Creator of a New Order in Central Asia
In the current stage of international relations, two opposing paradigms – conflict and cooperation – are uniquely manifesting.
However, the present global crisis demonstrates both the negative and positive aspects of contemporary international life to international politics, highlighting the "outdated" ideas and tasks in national foreign policy, the stillness within the priority system of international cooperation and simultaneously helping to open up new opportunities for the foreign policies of states in the changing international environment. Cooperation paradigms between states are evolving, and new trends in foreign policies are emerging.
Good-neighbourliness is one such paradigm and is considered one of the crucial principles of international relations. The practice of this principle is in harmony with public diplomacy, and the spirit of this people-oriented approach determines the prospects of the policy of good-neighbourliness.
As a principle of international relations, good neighbourliness was advanced by Western countries in the mid-20th century (for example, the foreign policy of President F. Roosevelt's administration towards Latin American countries) and has been accepted in UN documents as one of the principles of international law.
In international relations, good-neighbourliness is considered one of the fundamental principles of interstate cooperation. At all times, the implementation of this principle by states, or more precisely by state leaders, has either been hindered by insufficient opportunities or a lack of political will. Consequently, conflicts have become an objective reality in various regions of the world, or regions have found it difficult to escape the "vital interests" of a leading state.
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Today, observing different approaches to good-neighbourly relations in every region of the world is possible. Therefore, it is essential not only to describe neighbourly relations between states in the classical sense but also to evaluate them in the context of the changing conditions of the modern world, which has become one of today's most pressing issues.
The principle of good neighbourliness has unique features, including:
- The practice of the principle not only in one state but also in adjacent states, ensuring that consensus prevails over conflict across the entire region;
- The foreign policy of the state promoting good neighbourliness influences the nature of political dialogue in the region significantly;
- The champion of neighbourly relations is recognised in the region and internationally. This recognition problem highlights the importance of the principle in international relations.
Today, the international community regards Uzbekistan as a key initiator of constructive dialogue in the Central Asian region and acknowledges its role. The three important aspects of good-neighbourliness mentioned above are evident in the foreign policy activities of New Uzbekistan.
According to President Sh. Mirziyoyev, Central Asia is one of the few regions in the world where fraternal peoples have lived in peace and harmony for centuries. The Central Asian region, covering an area of 3,962,790 square kilometres (10% of the area of Asia), has a population of nearly 80 million, accounting for about 1% of the world's population. These figures may be modest on a global scale, but the world is rediscovering Central Asia through the efforts of the rapidly growing and responsible regional state, Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan is considered the architect of the policy of good-neighbourliness in Central Asia. It can be said that the constructive form of close neighbourly relations in the historical and evolutionary development of international relations is directly linked to President Sh. Mirziyoyev's initiative to establish Consultative Meetings of the Heads of State of Central Asian countries.
All Central Asian states supported this initiative, and the first Consultative Meeting was held in Nur-Sultan (Kazakhstan) in 2018, the second in Tashkent (Uzbekistan) in 2019, the third in Awaza (Turkmenistan) in 2021, the fourth in Cholpon-Ata (Kyrgyzstan) in 2022, and the fifth meeting in Dushanbe (Tajikistan). These meetings have ushered in a new phase in the regional diplomacy of Central Asia.
The practical significance of the Consultative Meetings based on close neighbourly relations is associated with the following:
Firstly, the political processes in Central Asia over the past seven years have led leading states to recognise that the states located there are "living organisms" with their geopolitical power resources rather than mere objects of their beneficial policies. The new format, the Consultative Meetings of the Heads of State of Central Asian countries, initiated by the President of Uzbekistan, is geopolitically significant as they are held without the participation of external forces;
Secondly, today, consensus prevails over conflict in Central Asia. Ensuring stability and security in the region is viewed as an important factor. It is noteworthy that the rational use of water resources and the involvement of innovative technologies in this process, as well as supporting Afghanistan, being a part of regional security, traditionally seen as a source of threats, in its path towards peace and development, align with the regional security interests of Central Asian states.
The phrase "Central Asians understand that Afghanistan is an important country for connecting to the south and actively participate in solving its problems" reflects this understanding. Uzbekistan also pays special attention to achieving peace and recovery in Afghanistan, a country neighbouring Central Asia to the south, considering it crucial for the stable development prospects of the Central Asian region.
Relations with neighbouring states – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan – and the historically considered troubled neighbour Afghanistan have also intensified. Establishing peace in Afghanistan and ensuring the interconnection of Central and South Asian regions are recognised as positive results of Uzbekistan's pragmatic foreign policy, which is widely acknowledged by the international community today.
Thirdly, economic cooperation is becoming an essential branch of close neighbourly relations. According to statistical data, the total trade turnover of Uzbekistan with Central Asian states reached 72 billion US dollars in 2023. The share of Central Asian states in Uzbekistan's foreign trade turnover is 11,5%, with Kazakhstan accounting for 61%, Turkmenistan – 15%, Kyrgyzstan – 13%, and Tajikistan – 11% of this number.
The Consultative Meetings are undoubtedly contributing significantly to strengthening and developing regional relations. However, Uzbekistan's economic diplomacy, considering the region's status quo, suggests that despite the growing trade volumes, the Central Asian states do not fully utilise the existing opportunities, and external markets are gaining serious importance for each state in the region.
Fourthly, the mechanisms of inter-state cooperation are usually implemented through bilateral relations and multilateral political institutions. Today, Central Asian states participate in various formats of cooperation. The region's five states are members of the United Nations (UN) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
However, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan joined the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) in 2015 and the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2015 and 1998, respectively. Tajikistan became a WTO member in 2013, and Turkmenistan obtained observer status in the organisation in 2020.
It is natural to ask how the different membership forms in international organisations affect regional cooperation among Central Asian states. The answer is that membership in various regional organisations does not hinder regional cooperation among like-minded states with deep and close historical, political, and cultural ties.
Indeed, for many years, Uzbekistan stayed away from the organisations above. However, due to the reforms carried out in the context of New Uzbekistan, decisive steps have been taken since 2017 to join the WTO. Uzbekistan obtained observer status in the EAEU in 2020.
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Today, New Uzbekistan is characterised by a period of extraordinary and sharp turns in the history of Uzbek statehood. Such recognition results from numerous practical efforts aimed at consistently protecting national interests, developing multifaceted relations with world countries, strengthening trade and economic ties with partner countries, and advancing the initiatives of our country's leader on an international and regional scale.
New Uzbekistan is not just a participant in international relations but is boldly advancing its foreign policy initiatives in the international political arena and is emerging as a regionally responsible state with growing economic significance. For instance, Uzbekistan made a significant contribution to the adoption of resolutions by the UN General Assembly, including "Strengthening regional and international cooperation to ensure peace, stability, and sustainable development in the Central Asian region" (June 2018), "Education and Religious Tolerance" (December 2018), "Sustainable Tourism and Sustainable Development in Central Asia" (December 2019), and "Declaring the Aral Sea Region a Zone of Ecological Innovations and Technologies" (May 2021).
In 2020, a new chapter was opened in Uzbekistan's cooperation with international organisations in ensuring human rights – for the first time, Uzbekistan was elected as a UN Human Rights Council member. OSCE experts highly appreciated and supported the democratic transformations and socio-economic reforms implemented in Uzbekistan at a new stage and the policy of strengthening neighbourly relations in Central Asia.
Under the auspices of the UN, a multifunctional centre for providing humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan was established in Termez (September 2021). In this regard, "Member states of the UN must address global problems, and Uzbekistan is a clear example."
As a result of these efforts, an entirely new, open, healthy, and friendly political, economic, and cultural-humanitarian environment has been created in the Central Asian region. Pragmatic and strategic relations with neighbouring states have been strengthened and expanded. Long-standing issues related to borders, water and energy distribution, free movement, and other matters in Central Asia are beginning to be resolved.
While the Central Asian countries cooperate within platforms such as the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) (Turkmenistan is not a member), there was no purely regional format of cooperation until 2018.
The format of the Consultative Meetings of the Heads of State of Central Asian countries, initiated by President Sh. Mirziyoyev eliminated "geopolitical pluralism" in the region and created conditions for close neighbourly diplomacy. Significantly, this format is not an integration structure or a political institution, and there is no agenda for such a matter. The leaders of the region's states explicitly stated that they do not intend to repeat the path of formal integration or establish any political institutions, preferring the consultative format and avoiding actions that would go against the interests of other countries.
The practical application of the principle of close neighbourliness has elevated Central Asia to a new stage in the global context. Today, Central Asia is not at the periphery of international politics but is increasingly attracting global attention. It is evidenced by the establishment of new formats free from integration associations, such as "Central Asia – USA," "Central Asia – European Union," "Central Asia – Republic of Korea," "Central Asia – Japan," "Central Asia – India," "Central Asia – China," and "Central Asia – Russia." These formats demonstrate the interest of leading foreign states in political dialogue with the region's countries.
Experts attribute the advantage of such a platform to the fact that "the institutions in Central Asia have not fallen under the influence of external forces," noting that the region's states have experience in this regard, as seen in the Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone or the now-defunct Central Asian Economic Community (CAEC).
According to F. Starr, despite bold steps towards regional cooperation, the political landscape of Central Asia remains unintegrated into a strong regional institution. Thus, Central Asia can be the only region in the world without a robust regional institution.
Indeed, since 2018, the Consultative Meetings of the Heads of State of Central Asia have been held. The next sixth meeting will be held this year in Astana. Creating institutional structures important for each participating state is not on the agenda of such meetings.
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In recent years, discussions regarding Central Asia in the international arena have been characterised by two opposing tendencies – cooperation and competition. When cooperation was mentioned, the focus was primarily on the cultural and customary closeness of the peoples of the region, their historical commonality, the contributions of thinkers from the region to human progress, and the role of Central Asia in the development of Islamic civilisation. International experts regarded geopolitical location, economic capabilities, mutual influence, the use of natural resources, and political leadership as the primary causes of regional competition and conflicts between states, and they vigorously propagated this view.
The approaches to Central Asia have fundamentally changed at the current stage of historical-evolutionary development in international relations. According to R. Vakulchuk, a leading researcher at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, "Today, cooperation has become the main criterion of regional relations, and this is recognised by major external powers (such as China and the EU)." Similarly, any issue in the region is now viewed not as a means of competition but as a factor expanding the steps of cooperation in Central Asia, and "this initiative belongs to Uzbekistan."
The expert noted that, like Kazakhstan and most likely Turkmenistan, they still depend on exporting their energy resources. Meanwhile, for Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, labour migration to CIS countries is the main source of their economies. In contrast, as a state with a highly diversified industry, Uzbekistan is less affected by external influences in the region.
Internationally, changes in Uzbekistan have been recognised in connection with the liberalisation of the economy and achievements in human rights. In 2019, the international publication "The Economist" recognised Uzbekistan as the country of the year for implementing planned reforms. For the first time in 2020, Uzbekistan was included in the international "Global Innovation Index," improving its performance in the categories "Developed Market," "Infrastructure," and "Human Capital and Research" since 2016.
During her visit to Uzbekistan, Christine Lagarde noted, "Today, Uzbekistan is changing the growth equation and striving to become a centre of integration and innovation once again. In recent years, the reforms in the country have attracted the wider public's attention. Now, there is an opportunity to take advantage of the existing momentum and continue on the path that creates unprecedented growth. Additionally, in this process, Uzbekistan will naturally play an important catalytic role in the development of Central Asia. Modernisation of the economy and political openness in Uzbekistan will be crucial for political stability and economic growth in Central Asia."
For many years, Europe neglected the Central Asian region, including Uzbekistan. Surprisingly, since 2019, the EU has become the main trading partner for all Central Asian countries, accounting for 24.1% of the total trade volume. In this sense, Uzbekistan is considered an ideal location for EU business in the region. The country offers the most favourable conditions for business in the region. It can be supported by Uzbekistan's high ranking in the World Bank's ease of doing business index compared to neighbouring countries and the activities of many European companies in the country today.
In relations based on close neighbourliness with the states of the region, the initiatives of the President of Uzbekistan to address long-standing problems in Central Asia, including delimitation and demarcation of state borders, rational use of transboundary water bodies, and other measures, demonstrate that Uzbekistan is actively coordinating regional development. The state is interested in its stability, development, and being free from external political influences.
Deep reforms aimed at transitioning the state and society from one condition to another have never been easy. However, the current reforms in New Uzbekistan are irreversible processes required by the times, and naturally, there will be complexities and various struggles. Despite these struggles' challenges, they inspire millions to look towards the future with firm confidence.
Today, Uzbekistan's neighbourly policy is considered an entirely new phenomenon on the world political stage. President Sh. Mirziyoyev's completely new perspective on problems, his understanding of global conflicts with a new mindset, and his adherence to an entirely new direction are being highly valued in the region and globally.
B.Khojanov
Head of the Department of Geopolitics and International Relations, Associate Professor,
Higher School for Strategic Analysis and Prognosis of the Republic of Uzbekistan
