Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan spent $725 million importing gas in five months as its own output slid
Uzbekistan's natural-gas imports rose 84% year on year to $724.7 million in January to May, the state statistics committee reported, while its gas exports to China fell. A country that shipped gas abroad a decade ago now buys it to keep the lights on.
Uzbekistan’s cargo boom is outgrowing its border posts
Cargo turnover grew 43% in the first half of 2026 and transit traffic 35%, the transport minister and customs chief reported on state television. The bottleneck has moved to the border, where the president wants throughput doubled.
Mirziyoyev ends a 23-year pause in Tbilisi, and Georgia gains a second Central Asian partner
The first Uzbek state visit to Georgia since 2003 brought a declaration of strategic partnership, Georgia’s highest state award and a package of agreements. Kazakhstan signed its own strategic partnership with Tbilisi three days earlier. The western gate of the Middle Corridor is signing up its shippers.
Uzbekistan’s petrol price hits a record as the regional fuel squeeze spreads
AI-92 petrol on Uzbekistan’s commodity exchange reached 13.9 million soums a ton on 29 June, about $1,160 and the highest level ever recorded. The jump lands while Russia restricts fuel exports, Kazakhstan’s biggest refinery sits in maintenance, and Uzbekistan’s own output keeps falling.
Central Asia’s shortcut to the sea runs through a war
Landlocked Central Asia wants a fast route to the ocean through Afghanistan and Pakistan. The war between them has shut that door for now, and it is pushing Afghanistan’s own trade north into Central Asia instead. Both shifts redraw the region’s map of dependence.
China gives Central Asia eyes in the sky for its disasters. The data lands in Xinjiang
China and three Central Asian states agreed last week to build a shared constellation of satellites to watch for earthquakes, landslides and the floods that come off melting glaciers. The region needs the warning. The satellites’ data will be processed at a computing centre in Xinjiang.
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan put their border crossings on a 24-hour clock
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are moving border checkpoints to round-the-clock operation, qazinform reported on 26 June. It is a small administrative change with a real effect on trade: a border open all night moves more goods than one that closes at five.
Before the reactors, the wires: Central Asia loses up to a fifth of its power in aging grids
While Astana and Tashkent pour concrete for nuclear plants, the EDB used its Almaty meeting to point at the cheaper problem underneath: aging generation and grids that lose as much as 20% of the electricity they carry.
Central Asia is going nuclear on Russian reactors and Russian credit
Uzbekistan has poured the first concrete for its nuclear plant. Kazakhstan has signed a $16.5 billion deal for its own. Both will be built by Rosatom, financed largely by Moscow, and fuelled on Russian terms. The region that talks about loosening its dependence on Russia is pouring four decades of it into the ground.
The IMF likes Uzbekistan’s numbers and still flags the risks
Uzbekistan grew 7.7% in 2025 and brought inflation down, the IMF said this week. The praise came with the usual instruction: keep policy tight, because the easy part of the cycle is ending.
Kyrgyzstan gains two villages from Uzbekistan, and a road that cuts 200 kilometers off the trip
Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan swapped border land this week: two villages of about 2,500 people moved to Kyrgyzstan, equal plots went back, and 236 hectares changed hands for a road that cuts one regional journey from 255 kilometers to 55. Bishkek has already proposed the same kind of swap to Kazakhstan.
Uzbekistan offers Beijing the value-chain deal Kazakhstan offered Brussels
As Tokayev pressed Brussels to process Kazakh minerals inside Kazakhstan, Tashkent was making the same case to Chinese state firms. Two rival buyers are hearing one regional pitch: build the value chain here. Uranium runs through both.
EBRD puts $25 million into an Uzbek steelmaker
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is lending $25 million to expand steel production in Uzbekistan. It is the kind of mid-size, real-economy deal that tells you more about the investment climate than any forum headline.
The three Syr Darya states lock in their summer water-for-power deal
Energy and water ministers from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan met in Bishkek and signed a protocol governing water releases and electricity supply for July and August. It is the routine machinery of a bargain the region cannot afford to get wrong: upstream water for downstream power, settled season by season.
Tashkent's forum showed a country sitting comfortably on every bloc at once
Weekend reporting on the Tashkent forum drew out a quieter result than any dollar figure. With Russia's premier on the plenary stage, US executives in side rooms, the EU courting the Middle Corridor and Albania making a debut, Uzbekistan displayed a multivector balance that one regional report called emphatic non-alignment.
Tashkent's forum closes, and the number that matters is the conversion rate
TIIF-2026 wrapped on 18 June. The closing headline figure was still not public as this pack went out, but a more telling number did surface: about 35% of the deals signed at last year's forum are already in implementation.
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan set up a joint commission on shared water
The two governments agreed on 17 June to create a transboundary water management commission. It drew none of the attention the Tashkent forum did. Over a decade it may matter more.
Tashkent's investment forum closes on its deal-making day
TIIF-2026 ends on 18 June with the Foreign Investors Council session that turns three days of pitches into commitments. The benchmark to beat is last year's $30.5 billion. The closing tally is expected later today.
Uzbekistan loses to Colombia but scores the goal it will remember
Abbosbek Fayzullaev levelled the match at the Azteca on the hour, the first World Cup goal in Uzbekistan's history. Colombia answered within five minutes and won 3–1, but the debut delivered the moment the country came for.
The White Wolves take the Azteca pitch tonight in Central Asia's first World Cup match
Uzbekistan's confirmed starting eleven lines up against Colombia at 22:00 local time in Mexico City — 02:00 UTC, 18 June. Eldor Shomurodov leads the line. Cannavaro asks for the game to be played on Uzbekistan's terms.