Uzbekistan tries to maintain parity in its foreign policy – after the recent visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Tashkent, when they discussed the timing and program of the official visit of President Islam Karimov to Russia, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Richard Hoagland, visited the Uzbek capital on July 23. Special focus of the meeting with top officials was devoted to the development of relations with the US. The experts do not rule out that Washington considers Uzbekistan as a potential beachhead in Central Asia.
"Uzbekistan has been trying to balance between the main centers of power and maintain a complementary policy for many years," Doctor of Political Sciences Sergei Zhiltsov told Vestnik Kavkaza. According to him, it is the only country in Central Asia that the United States can rely on. Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are members of the Eurasian Economic Union. Tajikistan is on his way to it. Turkmenistan pursues a closed policy, focusing only on the sale of its hydrocarbons. And Washington still needs strongholds in Central Asia, given the continuing danger of the spread of radical Islamism from Afghanistan.
This year the US gave Uzbekistan M-ATV armored vehicles, as well as armored repair and recovery equipment. Tashkent received 308 cars and 20 repair trucks worth a total of at least $150 million. Washington, providing military aid to Tashkent, seeks to maintain military and political influence in Central Asia. "If it were not for the features of an autarkic regime in Turkmenistan, the Americans would offer military assistance to Ashgabat too. Such a choice of the United States could be explained, because Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, unlike Tajikistan, are free of obligations under the Collective Security Treaty Organization, led by Russia, so they do not have to coordinate with it to join in with the US plans in the military-technical sphere," the expert on Central Asia and political scientist Arkady Dubnov told Vestnik Kavkaza. According to him, Uzbekistan's cooperation with the United States aims to strengthen the defense capabilities in the face of a possible threat from Afghanistan. But the process of rapprochement of Tashkent and Washington can be viewed at an angle of apparent bias of the military balance in favor of Uzbekistan in comparison with the US relations with other Central Asian countries, which, apart from Turkmenistan, are members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.
Uzbekistan, which entered the international counter-terrorism coalition immediately after September 11th 2001, was able to establish special relations with the Western countries, which initiated a military operation against the Taliban in Afghanistan. The result of the cooperation was the creation of the US Karshi-Khanabad military base in Uzbekistan (it stopped operating in 2005 at the request of Tashkent) and the use of the airfield in Termez, on the border with Afghanistan, by the German Luftwaffe. At the end of last year the cooperation with Germany was prolonged for several years.
The Tashkent authorities emphasize that the airfield in Termez is not a foreign military base, after the Andijan events the placement of such bases in the country was forbidden by the legislation of Uzbekistan. With such wordings Tashkent characterizes the current military-technical cooperation with Washington, which looks convincing, because there are no US bases in Uzbekistan, although there are NATO headquarters in Tashkent.
Russia, in its turn, would like to see Uzbekistan in its orbit. This year, Moscow and Tashkent will celebrate a decade of signing the contract on allied relations. Russian President Vladimir Putin invited Islam Karimov to Russia. "This year, we are marking the 10th anniversary of the agreement on an alliance, and in this respect, I note that it has been a long time since you made a state visit to Russia. We meet regularly and keep up our contacts, and you do come to Russia often, but the formal diplomatic side of things has its own significance and therefore I want to invite you to make a state visit to Russia," the Russian leader said during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the SCO summit. Islam Karimov accepted the invitation, saying: "I'm not just happy, but I think that this is required."
Yesterday it became known that Russia will write off $865 million of the debt of Uzbekistan out of a total debt of $890 million, which was formed in the first half of the 1990s. Then, Uzbekistan, coming out of the ruble zone, continued to receive Russian goods and technology in installments and by other preferential schemes. This debt was subsequently restructured into a loan. Another $25 million Tashkent will redeem itself. According to Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, "Moscow will write off $500 million and the interest for servicing it to ease the public debt of Uzbekistan." As the administration of the president of Uzbekistan noted, the debt relief will allow new loans to be opened, particularly through the arms trade."
"Military-technical cooperation has always occupied a special place. Contrary to stereotypes, in the post-Soviet time the army and security forces in Uzbekistan preferred Russia's weapons, resisting the overtures to go to NATO standards. It is possible that during the forthcoming visit of Islam Karimov to the Russian Federation, the subject of military-technical cooperation could be given special attention. It is easy to explain not only by commercial interests: even in the 90s, security issues in the light of the Afghan problem united the two countries," an expert on Central Asia and the Middle East, Alexander Knyazev, told Vestnik Kavkaza.
