Chinese Premier Li Qiang visited Tashkent on 17 October 2026, meeting President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov. Beijing pledged to increase imports of Uzbek products, reaffirmed commitment to the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, and identified energy, artificial intelligence and modern agriculture as priority areas for expanded cooperation.
The State Assets Management Agency has confirmed the cancellation of oil-field licenses held by Sanoat Energetika Guruhi and the termination of the $100 million Fergana Oil Refinery sale, as the company’s financial collapse leaves nearly 39,000 workers owed $131 million in wages.
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has announced a new Investors’ Council for the fuel and energy sector, to be led by Saida Mirziyoyeva, head of the Presidential Administration, after international energy companies cited persistent bureaucratic obstacles to project delivery.
Uzbekistan has quietly built one of Central Asia’s largest rosters of naturalized Russian athletes, spanning rowing, tennis, figure skating, swimming and fencing. The strategy delivers medals but raises hard questions about what it costs domestic talent and the sports budgets meant to develop it.
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has signed two grant agreements totaling USD 1.1 million with Azerbaijan to fund early-stage feasibility work on the Caspian Green Energy Corridor, a cross-border project that would connect Uzbekistan’s power grid to Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan through a proposed 400-kilometre submarine electricity cable.
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed legislation imposing life imprisonment for sexual violence against children under 14, as the government simultaneously announced a 30% rise in heating tariffs, dismissed the defense minister, reshuffled four Tashkent district governors, and arrested a deputy district governor for a $25,000 bribe.
Turkmengaz has halted natural gas deliveries to Russia’s Gazprom following a breakdown in price negotiations, ending a five-year supply arrangement that had delivered 5.5 billion cubic metres annually. The head of the Turkmen state concern says commercial talks are continuing, while Ashgabat simultaneously pursues a fourth pipeline branch toward China.
The Competition Committee reviewed 878 draft regulatory acts submitted through the government’s unified legislative portal in 2025 and found that 425 — nearly half — contained provisions contradicting competition law. The rate was highest for Presidential-level acts, where 147 of 239 drafts, or 61.5%, were flagged.
The Migration Agency under the Cabinet of Ministers has urged Uzbek citizens engaged in temporary labor activity in Russia to regularize their legal status no later than September 10, 2025, following a decree by the President of the Russian Federation extending the original deadline.
An expanded presidential meeting on October 27 set a GDP target of $135 billion and ordered a new budget monitoring system for 22 ministries and local administrations, as the economy grew 7.6% in the first nine months of the year — well ahead of forecast.
