Page 50 - bne_December 2017_20171204

50 Opinion
bne December 2017
International interest in Uzbekistan has been revived by the rise to power of the apparently reform-minded President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
Uzbekistan: Iran’s unlikely bastion of influence in Central Asia?
Kanat Shaku in Almaty
In times of yore, Iran and Uzbekistan were both part of the Persian Empire. Yet the two nations have grown distant in the one hundred years since the Uzbeks were enveloped into the Soviet Union.
Following the collapse of the Communist one-party bloc in 1991, the subsequent hard authoritarian rule of isolationist post-Soviet autocrat Islam Karimov, who ruled as president for 25 years until his death in September 2016, did little to improve things. While Uzbekistan shut itself off from the out- side world thanks to Karimov’s paranoia, Iran was closed off from international trade and investment due to the crippling Western nuclear sanctions. But gone is Karimov and gone are the Iranian sanctions, and both Iran and Uzbekistan have been opening up, including to each other.
Uzbekistan’s fortunes may have been revived by the rise to power of Karimov's successor, the apparently reform-minded President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Karimov took a highly cautious approach to his neighbours, but Mirziyoyev is looking to bolster regional cooperation. Doubly landlocked Uzbekistan, Central Asia's most populous nation, with upwards of 33mn inhabitants, is under its new broom aiming to foster trade with the next-door neighbours that are part of the Commonwealth
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of Independent States (CIS) and, a just little further afield, with Iran.
Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov made that much clear when he led a delegation to Iran in October. A business forum held as part of the visit on October 18 saw entrepre- neurs of both countries sign agreements worth $25.5mn, mostly in relation to agricultural and textile products. The two sides also signed “mutually beneficial bilateral documents” worth $7.5mn, according to Trend news agency.
Among other specific topics, Iran and Uzbekistan mulled improv- ing their banking and visa issuance regimes to boost trade.
Uzbekistan the hungrier
When it comes to mutual trade, Uzbekistan is the party with the greater hunger. The delegation's visit concluded with Tashkent and Tehran discussing the possibility of Uzbekistan buying Iranian crude oil – a resource much sought after by
the Uzbeks who under Karimov suffered lengthy oil and petrol shortages.
Iranian oil would be a welcome addition to the Russian, Kazakh and Turkmen supplies Uzbekistan secured earlier in the year,