GENERAL OVERVIEW

Farkhad TOLIPOV

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Farkhad Tolipov, Ph.D. (Political Science), representative of the Central Asia and the Caucasus journal in Uzbekistan (Tashkent, Uzbekistan)

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The year 2006 turned out to be Year “X” in Uzbekistan, a time of crucial decision about the next presidential election and the anticipated end of the so-called notorious transition period. No decision was made and no end was in sight. There were no radical changes for the better in foreign policy either.

Foreign Policy

Since around 2004, the country has been finding itself increasingly bogged down in a geopolitical quagmire. In January 2005, President Karimov pointed out that Central Asia has entered the stage of “strategic vagueness.” This is confirmed not only by the obvious fact of a clash of geopolitical interests between the largest world powers and Uzbekistan’s neighbors, but also by the subjective fact that the state has lost itself in the “geopolitical woods.” This could not but affect the country’s international situation.

In 2006, the EU did not lift the sanctions introduced when Uzbekistan refused to permit an international investigation of the May 2005 events, in which several hundred peaceful people lost their lives, while the government cruelly suppressed the Andijan terrorist riot. The U.S. State Department put Uzbekistan on the list of countries in which the rights of believers are………….

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