Turkmen-Uzbek Trade Slow to Take Off

Trade and economic officials from Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan will meet in Tashkent at the end of January, but experts are not predicting a significant breakthrough in the guarded relationship between the two states.

Annadurdy Hadjiev, a Turkmen economic analyst based in Europe, says the talks are likely to focus on regional matters of common concern such as water and energy, including shared pipelines.

While Uzbekistan is keen to move forward on these issues, Turkmenistan has been stalling, talking instead in generalities about cooperation and cultural bonds.

Another unresolved issue concerns cross-border trade, specifically Uzbek exports of agricultural produce and sales of Turkmen petrol.

Hadjiev believes neither government is eager to expand the range of bilateral trade.

Meetings like that of the forthcoming joint economic council tend to avoid practicalities and are simply used to express assurances of goodwill and future cooperation, he says.

This article was produced as part of IWPR’s News Briefing Central Asia output, funded by the National Endowment for Democracy.