{"id":14787,"date":"2025-04-03T09:44:18","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T08:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/londonpost.news\/?p=14787"},"modified":"2025-10-18T12:04:28","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T11:04:28","slug":"samarkand-eu-central-asia-summit-a-new-chapter-in-economic-partnership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/en\/analysis\/samarkand-eu-central-asia-summit-a-new-chapter-in-economic-partnership\/2025\/04\/03\/admin1\/","title":{"rendered":"Samarkand EU\u2013Central Asia Summit: A new chapter in economic partnership"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>By <strong>Dr Beruniy Alimov\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>On April 3\u20134, 2025, Samarkand will host a historic event\u2014the first-ever EU\u2013Central Asia Summit. The leaders of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan will meet with top European Union officials, including European Council President Ant\u00f3nio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The summit\u2019s primary focus will be economic cooperation and investment. Over the past few years, relations between Uzbekistan and the EU have deepened significantly, paving the way for expanded trade, infrastructure projects, and integration into European markets.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Uzbekistan\u2019s Growing Economic Ties with the EU<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>1. Trade Expansion<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u2022From 2017 to 2024, trade turnover between Uzbekistan and the EU increased 2.4 times, reaching $6.4 billion.<\/div>\n<div>\u2022Exports surged 3.6 times to $1.7 billion, while imports doubled to $4.7 billion.<\/div>\n<div>\u2022In 2024, the EU became Uzbekistan\u2019s third-largest trade partner, after China and Russia.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>2. Investment Growth<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u2022In 2024, EU investments in Uzbekistan rose by 77%, reaching $4.1 billion.<\/div>\n<div>\u2022Major investors include Germany, the Netherlands, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Italy, and Sweden.<\/div>\n<div>\u2022Around 1,000 enterprises with EU capital are now operating in Uzbekistan.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>3. Key Industries of Cooperation<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u2022Renewable energy, industrial production, pharmaceuticals, and textiles.<\/div>\n<div>\u2022Infrastructure and logistics, including the Trans-Caspian trade corridor.<\/div>\n<div>\u2022WTO accession support and export certification for EU markets.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Strategic Importance of the Summit<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In a world facing economic and geopolitical uncertainties, Central Asia has become an important partner for Europe. The EU\u2019s Global Gateway strategy, which aims to invest \u20ac300 billion in infrastructure development worldwide, aligns with Uzbekistan\u2019s vision for economic modernization and global integration.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Speaking ahead of the summit, European Council President Ant\u00f3nio Costa emphasized the need for stronger international partnerships:<\/div>\n<div>\u201cWe live in a world of division and disorder. For the EU, the only path forward is deeper cooperation to ensure peace and prosperity.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Samarkand Summit is expected to accelerate economic and trade agreements, attract new European investments, and solidify Uzbekistan\u2019s role as a key economic partner in the region.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Dr Beruniy Alimov\u00a0 On April 3\u20134, 2025, Samarkand will host a historic event\u2014the first-ever EU\u2013Central Asia Summit. The leaders of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan will meet with top European Union officials, including European Council President Ant\u00f3nio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The summit\u2019s primary focus will be economic [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":""},"categories":[25,9916],"tags":[185,186,464,5146,7438,7511,7533,8116,9562],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Climate-change.png","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14787"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14787"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14789,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14787\/revisions\/14789"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}